Nathanial Garrod

Brief Updates

I have been so busy the past few weeks that I have not had a chance to write down any thoughts or reflection on my goals/priorities for 2015, or thoughts about my 2015 OneWord, or even my OneWord 2016. This turns out to be quite a bit of a bummer.

This space may be mostly quiet during January (and maybe part of February?), but I am hoping to be able to bring it back to life, like really bring it to life again, in mid-March.

I did want to share a 10 brief thought/reflection/update things from the past few months.

  1. I am teaching again this term. It is strange and exciting, and after one class already feels better than last time. I had wonderful students last time, but I have a much smaller group this time (sidenote on this: I have a whole post of reflection on the last time I taught that I have been meaning to edit and clean up since I submitted grades for that class in June). No one tells you how much work updating a syllabus and re-organizing assignments/powerpoints is.
  2. My best friend was here from the end of December through yesterday. I am pretty sad he is gone. I felt this way after another good friend visited in November. This tells me that maybe I am to the point where I am possibly ready for a roommate. But it would have to be the right person, with the right values. And our friendship would have to be pretty strong. And I really have no people like that in my life in Portland. So here I am.
  3. We had snow in Portland recently! It turned into awful ice and ugh. But I got to hang out with Lindsay, Evan and Jeremy in the snow, as well as spend some time with Conor, Josh and Melissa. You can see me briefly near the end of a video Josh made about snow stuff. It was a pretty fun day. I think the highlight was team-cooking with Josh. I made a banana pudding basically without instructions (except direction from Josh). We worked together on chili and biscuits (those were mostly him) and even went to the store together before that to get all the stuff. It was a lot of fun.
  4. At an hour far earlier than I want to speak of, I will be taking the MAX to the airport to fly to Orlando, FL, via San Diego. I will be in Orlando for the last of a group of half marathons I signed up for in April-ish of 2015. I have barely trained. But it is the Walt Disney World Half Marathon, so it could be a lot of fun. Supposedly, there are lots of characters on the course, and some cool opportunities for pictures. I think it even goes through the castle. After the race, I will be visiting some of Melissa & Josh’s family and church and stuff.
  5. Right on the heels of that, I am headed to Seattle with my office to go to the NACADA Region 8 conference. This will be the first regional conference of my professional career that I have not presented at, which is a strange feeling. My co-worker and I submitted presentation proposals and were both turned down. Today we were discussing that it is a bit of a bummer to see some presenters that have multiple presentations, while others were completely declined. Especially in an organization that talks about being so focused on growth, development and new experiences for as many people as possible.
  6. I have no solid booking plans for travel or half marathons after this. I probably will not for a month or so. I just want to be here and enjoy the year. I started 2015 with this attitude and got carried away. I am hoping for at least one trip to Denmark this year. I want to finally visit Bend, Oregon, which I hear is a bit of a paradise. And I think I want to spend some time in San Diego this year. I will almost definitely be going to Anaheim, California for the Avengers Half Marathon in November 2016.
  7. Work has been good, but very busy. Students started back this week and Welcome Week is one of my busiest week. Me of Today is a bit bitter with Me of April 2015 for planning this trip. Whatever. There are a lot of things in the last few weeks that have really helped me refine and plan some processes for my job, which is really great and a cool opportunity.
  8. I still have a Winter Greeting card that needs to get in the mail, and it might not happen until I get back. Sorry, Lori.
  9. COMICS. So glad to see some friends getting into comics. I have been tapering my purchase of comics a bit, in an effort to see if it actually saves me any money. So far, it has not.
  10. Finally, I leave you with this somewhat blurry picture of me, in front of Big Pink. This was taken with my iPhone 6S, and a clip-on lens that Josh bought me as a Christmas gift.

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This entry was posted on January 6, 2016 by in Adventures!, Thoughts.

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