This is not a picture of me speaking at the Animal Advocacy Museum on 1/11/2014 . . . because that hasn’t actually happened yet. But this is a picture of me speaking on a panel, and I’m sure it will look very similar. I might even wear the same dress.

Hello!!! Happy Friday . . . evening. Or Saturday morning, depending on when you read this. My goodness, I have had a wild and wacky week as an actual, for really real, jump-in-let’s-do-this grad student! It’s been crazy and hard and really really time consuming. It’s exciting and nerve-wracking. On the first day of school I had a mini meltdown about halfway through, and holed up in my car furiously texting Gena (she just finished a post-bacc as a returning, older student) and plotting how I could disappear myself. She was sweet and talked me down. And yes, I’m being a little bit hyperbolic, because mostly the week was fine and fun and . . . no, that’s not true. It really was totally overwhelming and chaotic and why can’t anything just go smoothly? Sheesh.

I am lucky to have an amazing support system and I made it out alive. So much ♥ to all of them.

And guys, SO much ♥ to all of you! You left such wonderful, kind, and heartfelt comments on my last post, and I just wanted to let you know how much that meant to me. I think I replied to all of them (I hope!). Thank you all so much for the kindness and support.

So, An Announcement!

I just wanted to remind you guys that I’ll be speaking alongside my friend and colleague Matt Ruscigno, this Saturday at the Animal Advocacy Museum in Pasadena. The topic of our talk is Exploring the Ex-Vegan Phenomenon, and I’m certain that it will lead to a lively discussion. If you’re in SoCal and are free tomorrow/today afternoon around 3, I sure would love to see you there! You can get more info at the Facebook event page, here.

For everyone else, we do hope to film it, so I’ll be posting that soon (if it works out!)

This is my “Holy CRAP I’m about to start grad school!” face. And yes, that is a 3-liter bottle of wine. Otherwise known as “school supplies”.


And now, because life is awesome but even more awesome but we stop to be thankful for all the ridiculous amounts of awesome, Le Love List!

Jeremy threw me a surprise “OMG You’re Going To Grad School” party, it was amazing and all my friends brought me presents like sparkly sharpies and gold stars and miniature staple removers, and it was fantastic and made me feel so loved. Man, that man ‘o mine . . . .|. Feeling my Type-A kick into FULL GEAR literally the moment that school started. I worked hard to become a lower-stress person, and a lot of that meant letting go of my TCB attitude (which always bummed me out, ’cause I liked being on top of things). I knew that going back to school would bring back the Type-A, but I worried that it would also bring back all the stress and neurosis. But so far, I’ve managed to just get. shit. done. without getting super stressed out. So, back on top of All The Things, and feeling more like my old self, in all the best ways, than I have in years. YAY! .|. People who help, and go out of their way to help a little extra. Gosh that helps. .|. For his new year’s resolution, Harley went vegan! I’m so happy for him and so happy to share his journey with all of you. .|. Going to farm animal sanctuaries with Waits, hugging cows together, feeding horses together, and generally just watching him light up around all the animals. .|. Bike rides and beach picnics on new year’s day. Watching Waits play in the surf. .|. Buying presents for Waits and Jeremy at the UCSB bookstore, because I wouldn’t be there without them. .|. Black tea and green juice. .|. Finding the perfect avocado. .|. My new mantra is “It hurts because I’m growing.” It’s a really scary-overwhelming-transitional-self doubty-WTF kind of time for me right now, but so far I’ve managed to maintain perspective. I just have to stay in the eye of the storm, while everything swirls like chaos around me, and remain calm. One foot in front of the other. It got me through 2013, right? It’ll get me through this year as well.

So my dears, feel like sharing? I’d love to hear a Love List from you!

And, I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

♥ ♥ ♥

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