KSN 14 - KEB
Usually, every December I peer back through 365 individual strands of details to recall what the previous, now-murky December looked like. However, this year no such hazy reconstitution is necessary because literally the only things that remain of December 2013 are the length of my hair and being single. Comparison is much easier with stark contrasts rather than mere gradations.
Daily Occupation
2013: Figuring out what to do next
2014: Graduate School at Indiana University
I spent the first two months of 2014 studying for the GRE like it was my job, in anticipation and with hopes of making graduate school my job. Because I had decided to apply late in the cycle, I spent March waiting to hear from Indiana University and visiting programs in Oregon in case I needed to reapply for 2015. In April I was accepted into the masters programs in both counseling and counselor education, and applied sport science programs. In early June Mom helped me move to Bloomington, IN, and on June 23 I was sitting in my first academic class in 3,678 days. My brain has finally revved up to speed after being removed from five years in moth-ball storage, although the first research paper had to be teased forth word by tedious word.
Place of Residence
2013: Austin, TX
2014: Bloomington, IN
When I finally left Austin after just over 3 years, I was ready to leave. There remain a few people, more than a few restaurants, and one swim program that I miss every day, but the city itself had lost its luster. To me, Austin is on that part of a roller coaster ride where the cars are inching up the incline before a huge drop-off, and even though the cars are getting higher and higher and higher, they are gaining height slower and slower and slower. Eventually...WHOOSH! the bottom falls out and there's vomit everywhere.
Whereas Austin is the Madison of the South, Bloomington is the Madison to the South and East of Madison. Bloomington is much smaller than either, but feels similar and comfortable, with a lot less traffic. Though, I do get laughed at when I wear my cowboy boots.
Preferred Physical Activity
2013: Masters swimming, running, spinning classes
2014: Age-group swimming
Once I wasn’t required to train every day I had the opportunity to reconsider which sports I actually wanted to do everyday. It turned out to be swimming, and since the masters swimming community in Bloomington is on the verge of Civil War Part Deux, I started training with the senior group of the Counsilman Center Indiana Swim Team. And when I say “senior group,” I mean the oldest group of kids, which is the high school group. Age-group swimming is unlike any kind of swimming I’ve done or trained for before and I get my ass handed to me every single day by teenagers, but they helped me navigate my first swim meet ever, guffaw when I remind them that I could drive before they were born, and call me by my nickname: “Mom.” Between my teammates and their parents, I have found a community that I never could have imagined to hope for.
# of National Park Stamps in My Passport:
2013: not very many
2014: a whole lot more
On the last Friday in July I took my first final exam in more than a decade, and two hours later Mom and I were heading to west toward Yosemite on the Best of the West Tour: Summer 2014, following recommendations from Dad’s previous motorcycle trips. Together we drove over 6,600 miles in 15 days and stopped in 11? 12? National Parks. It was really just a sampler platter of the American (South)west and now I know exactly where I want to go on my next trip out that way. My new life goal is be the official hermit of the northern reaches of Yosemite. Just let them try and collect on my grad school loans.
# of Living Things Reliant Upon on Me
2013: Zero
2014: One, although every day is another chance for a return to zero...
Back in September I started visiting the Bloomington animal shelter every Friday. At first I came home from my weekly visit with only a fur-covered sweatshirt and a cuteness contact high. Then one week I came home with a foster rabbit. Her name is Honey Bunny, after the one half of diner-robbing duo in Pulp Fiction, and she weighs barely two pounds and I think she thinks that she is a cat. My current job is to fatten her up so she can be spayed and put up for permanent adoption, so her job is to be cute and eat timothy hay, alfalfa, parsley, cilantro, and romaine with abandon. We have become a pro-greens household. Whether I will adopt her permanently is under internal review.
Length of Hair
2013: Short
2014: Short
This past Thanksgiving the calendar flipped past seven years since I chopped off my hair and those people who still ask when I am going to grow it out, will continue to be disappointed.
Relationship Status
2013: Single
2014: Single
Trust me, this is for the best.
I head back to Indiana in early January, and will be there in classes through at last late June, and then again starting in late August. The second half of the summer remains a tantalizingly blank slate. My blog continues – http://kelziebeebe.blogspot.com - and my guest room is always open. Please stop and say hello if you travel through. KEB
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