Tuesday, March 5, 2013

A Long-Awaited Return to Blogging

After a very (very) long hiatus, I have decided to return to blogging!  As a grad student, I find that my head is constantly full of this and that, and I feel that blogging will be a good way to relieve some of that mental pressure.  My posts will likely be light and short (though I'm sure that there will be the occasional exception), and I'm excited to see where this leads.

So, for today's post, just a few things that make me happy lately.

1. Cooking fancy dinners


As a graduate student, I feel like I never have time to cook.  If I do have time to cook, I'd usually rather spend that time doing something else!  However, occasionally the cooking bug bites, and I actually eat a complete, rounded meal.  Earlier this week, I made soy and brown sugar marinated salmon and a salad with goat cheese and raspberry vinaigrette, rounded out with some french bread from my mom.  It was delicious!

2. Cooking not-so-fancy dinners!



I blame Pinterest for this one.  I saw this idea and I couldn't resist the cuteness!  So, I had mini tacos for dinner.

3. Criminal Minds

I've always enjoyed a good drama, especially one that had a good cast and team dynamic (I blame watching too much CSI during my formative years).  I was intrigued by Criminal Minds, and I noticed that Ion Television had regular marathons.  Thus, I've spent the past few weeks watching ridiculous amounts of Criminal Minds and not working as much as I should have!

4. Knitting

My mom and I took a knitting class together over winter break, and now I'm officially addicted.  I love the repetitive, soothing action and learning new stitches and techniques.  Basically, everyone can expect a lot of knitted presents in the future!

5. Mary Cassatt at the Louvre by Edgar Degas



I saw this pastel over monotype in my Modernisms class today, and something about it really grabbed my attention.  Beyond its attractive aesthetic qualities, there's something about the visualization of a woman looking at art that speaks to me as a female art historian.  Degas presented Cassatt as engaged in the act of looking, inaccessible to the viewer through her turned back and complete attention to the paintings in front of her, and I can definitely relate to that!

6. Complete (and successful!) conference presentations


Last week I presented at my first official conference, and I was definitely a ball of nerves for weeks leading up to the actual event.  However, it went pretty much perfectly, and I got great feedback on the content of my paper and my presentation itself, and I really enjoyed the experience.  Sometimes, that's all you need!

(Also, kudos to anyone who gets the Lord of the Rings reference in the title of my post!)