Monday, April 19, 2010

Neanderthal Cave-Man

Today has been pretty mellow - the morning started off with our weekly date to the Santa Monica Farmer's Market (I'll try to remember to take pictures next week). In addition to the produce and other stalls there are places that serve breakfast. The first time we went we got a huge veggie omelet, last week was apple-cinnamon pancakes, and today we got a breakfast burrito. Luke spent most of the day at his studio preparing for his exhibit and I've been at home working.

Living with Luke is fantastic and I am SO happy to be here, but.....

Luke is a Neanderthal cave-man when it comes to taking care of the house.

This is actually not news to me, but it was so much easier to ignore when he was visiting my place for a few days and on his best behavior, or I was staying at his house and could turn a blind eye to the grunge. Now that it is OUR place I have found that my tolerance for the messiness and dirtiness has plummeted. Part of it is definitely him - he can be pretty gross (toothpaste all over the bathroom sink, rinsing more than washing the dishes) but when I point this out then he really tries harder to be more considerate. Part of it is that I really like my house to be clean and we have very different standards of what that constitutes (such as whether it's acceptable to leave a trail of popcorn throughout the house or crumbs all over the kitchen counters or overflowing trashcans). Does that mean that I have to get used to doing more housework? Um, that's unappealing. And part of it is that I spend the day working from home, so the mess/dirtiness bothers me more and I end up spending more time cleaning and straightening up. However, I also don't have an hour-plus commute - does that mean that I should spend an hour more than him taking care of the house? Cause really, I can't expect him to scrub the stove-top when he's come home after evening rush-hour.

And it's only been EIGHTEEN days of living together! Lord help me.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Breakfast in Bed


Luke likes to do things like voluntarily get up at 7:30 on a Saturday morning, whereas I....do not. However, once in a while this means he wakes me up bringing breakfast and coffee :)

We've gotten into Mad Men and were up late last night watching episodes. Today it's warm and sunny and perfect beach weather. Not much going on - Luke has to work, I really should work, and may go to the UCLA library. I got set up with a library card, which is pretty freaking awesome. I'm finishing my dissertation revisions - I was not done by the April 1 deadline, and now we are aiming for May 15. Technically my graduation date will be summer (not spring) 2010, though I don't think this affects anything. My perfectionist instincts are really slowing down the process when what I really need to do is just wrap things up. I've been struggling with this issue since I defended, not really sure how to best deal with it.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Morning Coffee


I'm trying to get into the habit of posting and took this idea from another blog....I think the morning is the best time for me to write, before I get caught up in the day.

When Luke goes into school/work he leaves around 7 am to beat the rush-hour traffic, and since moving to Santa Monica means that his commute went from 10 to 30 minutes I try to get up with him and make a quick breakfast. Today I went back to bed after he left to drink my coffee and read the paper, which is where I'm posting from now.

I was in St. Louis, MO this week where I presented some of my diss research at a conference. The presentation went well and I got some much-needed motivation to keep going with my work. It was great to see a lot of my friends whom I've met on digs and travels and whom I don't keep in touch with often enough. The South Africans who discovered the newly-announced hominin, Australopithecus sediba, were there and I had actually met them and got to see the fossils and fossil site when I was in Johannesburg last year!

Luke has another exhibit next week so is working around the clock. I am trying to find a balance between relaxing, exercising, cooking, going to the beach, and also getting my work done. I miss my friends and some parts of DC but I have to say I am SO glad that I'm living somewhere else. Things were too crazy and hectic in DC and I'm still trying to get off the stress bandwagon.