alive, happy, etc

1) Earn a Masters Degree - check

 And with that, I'm sure you understand why I've disappeared entirely.

Since 2012 began, I have, in stream of conciousness, no particular order fashion:

• started running 5.5 miles (up from about 3) on my "usual" run
• read several physics textbooks in their entirety
• received one a teaching award (and earned it)
• gotten a summer job at Los Alamos National Lab 
• learned to balance on my head in yoga class
• mastered the tricep push-up (I can do three!)
• gotten engaged to the man in my life (we're still grinning like idiots about it, even though we've been living in sin for 4 years)
• become a PhD candidate, read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
• joined a book club - which is very distracting for my reading project
• visited several new parks with my dog
• volunteered for the ND physics department

i definitely haven't been bored, and i admit, i'm leaving a few things out.