Things are changing....

So I hinted last night in my post that I had some big news to share with the world, and I think that I'm finally ready to spill the beans. Obviously Keith and I moved to Philadelphia one year ago exactly so that I could start graduate school at Temple. We had a lot of ups and downs throughout the year, learned so many things and grew closer together in the best of ways. BUT, for me one thing just wasn't exactly what I was hoping for... and that was school. So as of next week I will no longer be continuing my journey at Temple, as an Art History student. This is a decision that Keith and I actually made together more than a month ago, but waited to share until after the wedding was over and the pieces of our life were a little more put together. This definitely was NOT an easy decision for me to make, mostly because Keith and I both uprooted our lives to move here so that I could be in school. At first it seemed crazy to quit, especially since I only have one more year left, yet the more and more that I thought about it I couldn't come up with any reasons to stay. Bottom line: I really did not enjoy it. I don't want to say that I hated our life last year, because that is not true by any means, but I did not enjoy the program I was in, I had lots of trouble making friends and feeling part of a community and graduate school just didn't seem to click with me. It was a pretty tough year. Anyone who went to high school or college with me knows that even though I may complain about it.. I love school. I love school because it's something that I'm good at, but graduate school? I was not good at that. I spent my entire first year coasting through all my classes which is so not me, and for something that I seemingly love so much, I left last year feeling disheartened and completely un-passionate about anything I studied. Here is the deal, at this point in my life and my career, I don't feel that school is something that I'm meant to be doing and we cannot justify spending another $20,000 on something that I don't enjoy. As I embarked on making this decision I tried my hardest to think back to a time in my life when I felt least stressed and most happy and that for sure was the year that I took off from school and worked full time. That was such a huge sign to me, and was a big help when it came to actually quitting school. I definitely plan on returning to my masters degree at some point in my life, and I worked it out with my advisors that my credits will still be usable... I just don't think right now is the time for me. It's obviously hard not to immediately feel like I wasted this whole past year, and made a poor decision in quitting my amazing job in Florida to move here but Keith and I both agree that we came here for a reason, and it strengthened our relationship in so many ways. I wouldn't have known graduate school wasn't for me until I tried, and now that I have we can only move on from here. I think that our last year in Philadelphia we both grew up so much, and I would never take any of that back. Talking to friends this summer, many of them asked me how my first year of graduate school went and after realizing that I said not one positive thing to anyone, I knew it was time to reevaluate. I'm usually the kind of person that will stick to my guns no matter what kind of decision that I make, just so that I don't have to go back later and admit defeat, but this is one situation where I am sucking up my pride and waving the white flag. Your opinions are definitely welcome, but judgements are not.... this is the best decision for Keith and for me at this moment and we could not be more excited for what the future holds for us!

Moving on from this point, I'm going to start looking for another temporary part time job this week so that we don't feel so crunched for cash as I start to pursue full time positions. My plan for after graduate school was to apply for jobs nationwide and see where it took us, and that plan is just being pushed up a year. I really feel like this is something that I need to be patient with in order to find that right position and the right city for Keith and I, but we're pretty excited about the adventure. For now, we're holding tight here in Philly but within the year we hope to be moving on to something bigger and better.

I can't thank my family enough for being so supportive of my decision, and I hope that my friends are as well. I'm very sorry that we waited so long to tell everyone, or if you feel like we left you out of the loop. Timing was everything for us, and we didn't want to add to ours or anyone elses stress levels before our wedding. Please feel free to call either of us if you have more questions to ask us about what's going on in our lives right now.

Here's to the future!

Been there done that...

This right here is the face of accomplishment.

I AM DONE!!!! Year one of graduate school is over and done, no looking back! Granted, next year is going to be quite a doozy (german and french language exams, comprehensive exam and writing a thesis, don't remind me ugh) but from this day until September I have no school stresses to weigh me down. That means... if we haven't talked in a long time? Haven't hung out in way too long? or have been meaning to catch up forever... CALL ME! I miss my friends, I miss having a life, and cannot wait to have the greatest summer of my life. I also want to thank everyone who was so supportive of me this year, listened to me complain about every assignment, talked me off the ledge when I felt completely overwhelmed with readings, spared the computer when I threatened to throw it at a wall and stayed up all night with me when I bit off more than I could chew with each paper (by that I mean thank you to my ridiculously amazing fiance Keith Richards who is probably more excited for me to be done with school than me haha)

From now on it is wedding planning and leisurely reading in the park :)

Presentations

This semester I really enjoy all of the papers that I'm writing, much much more than what I worked on last semester. (Though this doesn't mean that they're any easier to write haha)

Here's a little overview of what I'm currently slaving over:

For my Northern Renaissance I'm researching the cultural history of a series of 3 tapestries at the Met named "Courtiers in a Rose Garden" I'm focusing on the conservation work that has been done over it's history and discussing the differences in how it looked when completed vs. how it looks today. This is something completely different for me (being that my focus is 20th century American art) but this is one of my favorite papers I've written so far. I've recently gotten reallyyyyyy into conservation, and tapestry conservation is pretty cool.


For my 1960's class I'm writing about Mark Rothko (my serious favorite of all time). Though he did a majority of his famous works in the 40's and 50's there is definitely something significant about the work that he did in the 60's. I'm talking specifically about the commission of the Rothko Chapel in Houston Texas and how Rothko was obsessed with the environment in which people viewed his art. He nitpicked over hanging, lighting and spacing all to create these places where people could have special experiences. It was pretty neurotic, but it's what makes entering a room of his works so incredible. Love it.


Lastly, for my Art and Environment class I'm focusing on conservation again haha I'm researching the damaging effects of pollution on our cultural institutions like museums and national monuments. Acid rain, smog and general poor air conditions have a greater affect than many care to think about, and conservators are working like crazy to develop new methods of cleaning and caring for these important cultural icons.

Anyway, it's going to be a challenging couple of weeks trying to get all of this out of my brain, but I'm pretty excited about the end result. Dear blog: stop distracting me haha

137 days to go.

As we fast approach the 4 month mark I decided to make a count down on our wall until August 14th. What I discovered though is when you write out all the days like that it makes it seem even further away haha. Regardless, for the entire month of April I will have to say goodbye to wedding planning and turn over that responsibility to Keith. I'm currently staring down three 20 page papers complete with presentations that will all occur in the next 4 weeks. I am very thankful that summer is coming soon, and I will get a break from all things academic for a couple months. Here's to the greatest summer of OUR lives :)

A few things to look forward to in the midst of a stressful school load?:

1. The possibility of Katelyn coming to visit this weekend. I miss my former roommate, she likes watching Disney movies on the couch with me, and eating junk food. That is something that I desperately need :)

2. My mom is coming next weekend! She's going to be here from Thursday until Sunday and I'm SOOO excited for her to get a chance to see our world here in Philadelphia. Also, I will be giving 2 of my presentation before she gets here, so I will have a chance to enjoy some downtime for the weekend.

3. Keith moving to a new store that is much closer to home. This is something that we're both incredibly excited about! Although he gets along wonderfully with the people at the store he currently works at, it is just too far away. Since we moved here we have had nothing but frustrating stories involving car trouble related to his long commute, and we're very thankful that he is going to be able to work at a store that is just 15 minutes away without any traveling on the highway. It has been and will continue to be a little bit stressful transitioning to his new location because his district manager has yet to find him a replacement at the old store (meaning he has to be back and forth between the two), but this is definitely an answer to our prayers. Hooray for spending less money on gasoline! and for Keith being closer to home! and not having to get home so late at night! Too many reasons why this is awesome :)

NYC weekend

So as I explained in my last post, I was in NYC last weekend. It turned out to be a nice/semi relaxing visit with Amanda and Jake, and we were able to enjoy some of the wonderful weather that the Northeast has been experiencing.

Here is Leelou soaking up the sun and enjoying her cat grass.. we need to get Theo some, I'm sure he would devour it haha

I got to town on Friday morning and shortly after Jake, Amanda and I made the trek up to North Manhattan to visit the Cloisters Museum. If you've never been, I highly recommend it. Here are some photos from our day.











This is Amanda and Jake with a Narwhal tusk. No big deal haha





Here is Jake posing with one of Diesel's terrible subway ads

We passed a cat shelter and Amanda and I swooned over all the adorable kitties :)

Then we went and got some burritos for dinner, complete with $4 frozen margaritas mmmmm

On Saturday I went with Amanda to Chelsea for a gallery walk with one of her classes. We got to see some strange and interesting art, and above all got to enjoy more lovely weather. Afterwards we made the trek up to Queens to check out all the construction work Jake had done in his bedroom.

Here he is with his master piece of a recording studio/area to play drums without bothering his neighbors room. It smells a lot like wood in his room and it's a little cramped, but it's a pretty neat space and very practical for him

He now has his bed lofted with his desk underneath.. but alas! What is missing? Oh yeah, a ladder to get up on the bed. Amanda and I struggled to get up there.

She succeeded better than I did.. my pants just weren't as stretchy.

She then preceded to crawl on top of the recording studio box like a cat haha

Lastly, this is the tapestry at the MET that I'm writing a paper about, and essentially the reason why I went to the city. Now I just have to do the paper haha

Sunday I ended up having a lot more free time that I anticipated after I met up with my classmates at the Metropolitan Museum, Amanda and Jake met up with me midday and we got to check out the Whitney Biennial.

Wonderful weekend, although I did come home with a yucky sinus infection :( I'm currently recovering, unhappily and hoping the weather stays as nice as it has been.

Out of town

After a week filled with many trials I'm currently on a bus to New
York City for the weekend. This trip is slightly bittersweet because
while I do get to see my brother for the first time in months, I
didn't get to see Keith very much this week and that makes it harder
to be away from home. I'm going to be here to get some research done
for a paper I'm writing this semester and I'm pretty excited to visit
galleries with Amanda, expect a photo update later in the weekend.

It seems that we can't catch a break with our poor little car. After
Keith sat at a mechanic's shop for 8 hours and spent over $500 we're
still not completely sure what's wrong :-( I don't mean this to sound
like a pity party by any means, because in so many ways we are
completely taken care of. I can't thank our parents and families
enough for always being there to help us out when we're going through
tough times. Just little things like Keith's mom helping is out with
groceries this week goes such a long way.

Here's my short list of goals for the coming weeks:

1. STOP BITING MY NAILS! It only makes me more stressed, and I would
like to have pretty long nails before our wedding
2. Don't let our car situation bring me down. It's going to be fine,
we've done all that we personally can do and it's time to just take
things has they come.
3. Enjoy the incredibly awesome weather that the northeast is
experiencing. After the winter we just had I'm not sure if I could
ever take a sunny day for granted again, but I would really like to
take this oppurtunity to spend some time outside.

Future adventure

After watching 50 First Dates (one of our collective faves) Keith and I talked seriously about moving to Hawai'i once I'm done with graduate school. Our general philosophy/goal is to explore as many new cities/states as we can and when I get my degree the plan is to apply for jobs nation wide and see where the Lord will take us. After 2 years of grey and cold winter here in the northeast we both agreed that something tropical/warm would be nice, so we vowed not to rule Hawai'i out. Granted, neither of us have ever been there and really only know what we've seen in movies or pictures but I think after experiencing city life something a little slower paced would be nice.

We'll see! I have no idea where the winds will blow us once our stint in Philadelphia expires, but it's always nice to dream.

Getting up to speed...

Just a short recap of 2009’s milestones:

• Obviously, I moved to Philadelphia! Said goodbye to my closest friends and family and headed north to pursue something awesome.
• Got accepted to, and started graduate school at Temple University. Another Art History degree, here I come!
• I moved in with my best friend and greatest roommate of a lifetime, Keith.
• We adopted the coolest little cat in the WORLD, Theo… aka boogerhead (more on him later)
• WE GOT ENGAGED!! Here’s a look at the fancy ring that I get to wear for the rest of my life (no complaints from me)

2009 was one of the most memorable and amazing years of my life. That’s not to say that it didn’t have its share of breakdowns and low points, but in the end, I got to share this entire year madly in love with the coolest dude around (and now I have another littler dude looking out for me, who loves to cuddle just as much, and probably has an equally fuzzy face as Keith haha. Thanks for being a winner of a cat, Theo). I got to share lots of great times with my best friends, lived with a few of them and ate way too much Moe’s :)

Now on to 2010, that is bound to be another amazing year full of more awesome adventures. Here are some things that I’m looking forward to this year:

• Continuing my masters, one semester down, three to go. I have a lot of work to do, and I’m hoping 2010 will motivate me to be the best student I can be.
• GETTING MARRIED! and getting a new last name. I love my family to pieces, but I can’t wait to start a family of my own (I promise, your family is going to be jealous of how awesome the Richards’ will be)
• Getting to wake up next to my favorite person every single day this year. 2009 was still a year of long distance dating, but now that we’re together, I can’t imagine living (or even BEING) miles away
• Continuing to explore our new city and all the exciting things it has to offer. Hopefully making so new Philadelphia friends in the process too haha

Cheers!