The Nadine Scene

I'm a bit behind with my 30 day writing challenge, which should come as no surprise to anyone who has ever met me. I suppose undertaking such a endeavor in the middle of our major professional conference, towards the end of the semester, and while planning an extended international trip was not the best of ideas. Was it Churchill who said "perfection is the enemy of progress"? Well, Google thinks so, so I'm going to go with it. So I will continue to soldier on. And I promise to make up for my delinquent ways with a few extra entries between now and then. Honestly, this has been quite difficult. I spend a lot of my day writing for public consumption (albeit a small public) and trying to figure out what ELSE to write about has been a challenge. Still, my goal remains - to be a better story teller. And for now, the stories I tell will be from my own life. But maybe as I get more used to this, I'll tell you about some of the things that rattle around my head when

There are lots of stories I want to tell but I'll have to stick to another short one today. After 3 days of conferencing, I'm more exhausted than at the end of my last marathon. But the end result is worth it; several days spent with brilliant people thinking and doing meaningful things. Nothing an extra cup of coffee won't fix. There are many things that made this week special, but one especially stands out - even if no one else noticed. In fact, that was sort of the point. You see, this week I got to test out my new hearing aids, in settings that most definitely have given me grief in the past. Large groups in crowded spaces are especially difficult but this week, I was able to manage and maneuver so much better than in the past. Some background: when I was 7, I fell ill The kind of illness that lands a child in the hospital, of a seriousness that meant I wasn't even allowed in the shared child's playroom due to fears of contagion (what can I say, I was 7 -

In person, I'm a half-way decent story teller (emphasis on half ). I get a lot of practice at work, when I have to stand up and entertain an unenthusiastic audience for 75 minutes at a time. I've got the funny facial features and voice intonations down pat, along with an occasional flair for the dramatic. In print, however, it's a different story; I found that out the hard way the first time I taught an online class. So one hope for the #30daywritingchallenge is to improve my writing to incorporate more of my personality. Or at least keep people awake. I've started to think about what kinds of stories I want to tell people. Two things come to mind: travel and running. Of course, those are things that a lot of people write about, and do so better than I ever could. But don't worry - I'm not suddenly going to turn into a lifestyle guru and tell you how to travel the world on a shoestring budget (but if you figure out how, please let me know) nor am I going to s

In case you haven't noticed, it's been a while since I've blogged. In fact, it's been a while since I've written anything that isn't directly work related - and as many of you know, there's nothing that exciting about academic writing.  But my friend  Allison Rizz  just challenged me (and anyone else who is interested) to a 30 day writing challenge. She's a lot more creative than me, so it will be hard to keep up, but I'm going to give it a try. After all, sometimes its nice to write about things that are apropos of nothing. Or at the very least, don't include statistical models. Most of what I have to say will probably be about running and training, with some travel and work mixed in. We've got an upcoming trip to Australia next month, plus an impending international move to prepare for, so some hilarity may ensue. And if not, I can at least promise a few cute cat pictures. It's been a while since I've written for a non-academi

My ability to blog is clearly non-existent!  Do people even read blogs any more?  Of course, I know that no one is reading mine these days, but maybe I'll get a couple of entries going to test the waters, as well as my writing skills.  These days, I write for work and not for fun, which really takes a lot of enjoyment away from the effort.  So I'll try to see if I can make things fun again... And what better way to start than with a recap of my most recent trip while I'm still on it - or at least, flying home from it (in-flight internet is my new favorite thing).  I am returning home from a fabulous and relaxing weekend in Portland, Oregon.  It was my first trip to the city and I got to spend time with some really amazing people, see some fun sights, and eat some fantastic food.  Overall, I can't complain! While I think about the highlight, I'll tell you that the worst part was my two hour diversion to Spokane!  Leave it to me to fly to Portland during the

As a general rule, I work from home on Mondays.  I don't need to be on campus and it helps me ease into the week, getting things done before all mayhem cuts loose on Tuesdays.  Plus, I like working from home - it means I get to do laundry while I'm getting some writing done (or, in today's case, blogging).  It also means that I feed myself real food, as opposed to the take out that generally keeps me alive most days (assuming, of course, I've gone grocery shopping).  Which brings me to today's discovery: while making lunch (soup), I discovered that  there are 11 boxes of pasta in my cupboards.  That's right, eleven.  For clarification, I am a single woman who lives alone with two cats (insert bad spinster joke here), so why in the world do I have 11 boxes of pasta? It doesn't stop there.  I have 3 boxes of rice and 2 of quinoa. I have 2 boxes of gluten free bread mix, 4 cans of coconut, two bottles of BBQ sauce, and two bottles of curry sauces.  Plus some