Happy Holidays and here's to looking on the bright side

Here come the holidays once again. This is one of my favorite times of the year for a multitude of reasons. I love the excitement in the air, the joyful feeling that most people emit this time of the year. Of course, I love baking-lebkuchen, stollen, cookies. There is something magical about the smell of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves wafting from the oven. Baking is a sort of alchemy---you start with simple ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, some flour and some flavoring. But from the oven emerges something delicious that is absolutely the best thing to go with a hot tea on a cold evening.

The holiday season always reminds me of how lucky I really am. There are always negatives in life, and I complain a lot about living in a huge, crazy city, surrounded by millions of crazy people. But really, kindness and friendship abound. If you stop regarding the throng of people as a huge, throbbing mass, and just consider the individuals you know, the majority of them are great. I should thank all the people here in Homestead who make may day to day life pretty enjoyable. An extension agent here in Dade county who is from Poland just stopped by before Christmas to give David and I a bag full of Polish soups, mushrooms, chocolate, and these delicious dried apples form her mother's tree in Poland. That sort of generosity really lifts one's spirit.

So all is not lost, humanity. People do still care about other people, although we may have to search a little harder to find compassion. I for one remain an optimist. I am saying this as my kitchen ceiling has sprung a leak and we are waiting for the plumbers, and the brakes on my new car are grinding again, after having been 'fixed' two weeks ago. Sigh. What can you do but keep plugging along and enjoying all the good times?

Happy holidays everyone!

A gradual student no longer

This Friday I will walk in my graduation ceremony and say goodbye to being a graduate student. I feel no sense of sadness or nostalgia that this period of my life is over, rather I am SO GLAD TO FINALLY BE DONE!!!

I think this is how most of us crazy people feel when we finally finish.

Now I can move on to other exciting, life-changing experiences, like my big delivery in late February. This one should be a very positive change, albeit challenging. I have to say, I really can't wait for the little guy to get here. And that's not just because my feet are swollen up like tree stumps and I can't stand up without groaning. I genuinely can't wait to meet him.

In the meantime, I am busy with my new job. We have so many projects going that it's hard for me to focus. My organizational skills are definitely being put to the test.

And of course the holiday season never leaves much room for effective time management. I am sitting in my office right now thinking about getting up and walking over to the pole barn where the TREC Christmas party is about to begin. I am on the social committee, you see, and have the responsibility of helping set all the food out. We actually have a beautiful spread, with turkeys, a ham, and of course, some pork leg (this is Miami after all, and no party is complete without some pork. But I can relate. After all, I am from Iowa.)

So I hope to be better about posting now that all the craziness is over. And I can actually see humor in life again.

Road Safety

Wow, last week was a real reminder about the dangers of getting behind the wheel here in Miami. I saw two accidents, and, I am ashamed to say, was also involved in one as well. Don't worry, mine was nothing serious, but it was my first accident down here, and a bit upsetting.

My uncle told me that the average Miamian is in an accident every 5 years.

I was driving on the Snapper Creek Expressway on Monday of last week, and had just entered a curve that merges onto another highway. Suddenly, the white car in the far right lane next to me crashed full speed into the concrete side of the ramp. Sparks were flying, the car slid for a number of yards along the concrete, spun around once, and came to a stop right at end of the next entrance ramp. I was frantically feeling around for my cell phone to call 911, but then looked over and saw the woman driving the SUV next to me was already on the phone. Luckily, the man driving the white car was conscious and moving around, and didn't appear to be seriously injured. I'm not sure exactly what he was doing to not notice the curve coming up, but I expect it involved a cell phone or radio. It's a good reminder to pay heed to those warnings about chatting/texting on your phone while driving.

Two days later, I was coming off the Turnpike at rush hour right by FIU to pick David up from work so we could get him some camping gear for a trip he took this week. I needed to get over into the left lane to make a turn, and so turned around to check my blindspot. When I looked back to the front, the traffic had unexpectedly stopped, and I ran right into the woman in front of me. Lucky for both of us, I wasn't going more than 15-20 mph and there is just some slight fender damage, but I guess I can now be counted in the masses of crazy Miami drivers out there (but at least I was checking my blind spot!). What made everything worse was that we had to wait 2 hours for the highway patrol to come out, and I was feeling pretty exhausted by the time it was all over. Not to mention a series of sexist remarks from the patrolman (but more on that next time).

So believe it or not, that wasn't it for car accidents that week. Friday I was driving to the greenhouse at TREC with my coworker in our little golfcart, and we saw a patrol car and tow truck out by the litchi field. So naturally we went over to investigate. It turned out that the husband of one of our students who lives on the premises got attacked by a bee while he was driving (well, he actually claims it was about FIVE bees), and hit the gas instead of the break. He plowed right through a poor litchi tree, and had to get the car towed out. It was a mess! And even worse, the car was a rental (I hope he has good insurance).

I know they always say bad things happen in threes, but I sure hope I am done with car accidents for a while.