My Second Snowy Owl

I couldn't believe my luck. Three years ago, I was driving back to my small apartment in Vermont from a wedding in New Jersey. After hours of driving through the Adirondacks on a sunny, snowy, and sparkly day, I had crossed frozen Lake Champlain (dotted with ice fishermen) via the charming Champlain Bridge. It was …

Geese

Last night, about half an hour before sunset, my friend took me to the Jeffrey Energy Center Wildlife Area near Belvue, Kansas. A fourth of this wildlife area has been designated as the Oregon Trail Nature Park, and there are still-visible ruts along the ground from wagon trains that crossed the country over 150 years …

Happy Halloween!

I've got about 12 hours to finish up a big project for tomorrow morning. And yet, instead of digging through census data and writing up a report, I'm thinking about what a wonderful weekend I had. I celebrated Halloween by spending time with new friends, carving pumpkins, drinking cider, wearing a wig and heels, and …

Autumn Walks on the Prairie

A week ago, I took myself out for a walk on the prairie. Billowing, slate-gray clouds rolled across the sky, so I knew I had to hurry. It's a lovely drive from town out to the biological preserve, and I kept the windows open to let the cold wind blow through the car as I …

Sunday Morning

One of the many things I love about graduate school is the appreciation it gives me for free time. When real life is squeezed into the gaps between project deadlines, coursework and research, it's a rare treat to ignore mental checklists and enjoy the natural rhythms of the day. This week was particularly hectic. I …

RPGs on the Prairie

Here in Kansas, my friend Bryan runs a weekly game of Dungeons and Dragons that consists mostly of graduate students from the math department. I've never played D&D, and in high school I was pretty close-minded about it. The kids who played were the same kids who hung out at the public library and who …

Greetings!

I like to write. I want to write more. I hope to write well. When starting a writing project, I ask myself the essential question: what would I want to read? My pretentious side always jumps in: “I want to read something important and impressive! News! Politics! Economic theory!” But let’s get real. The blogs …