That wacky e-mail

I’ve been reminded several times this year that you need to be aware and sometimes careful of what you say in e-mail because the person receiving it can forward it to anyone they want.   Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes a bad thing, sometimes just a freaky thing.

On Thursday, during one of my orientation sessions, I was asked to talk about what my research interests are.  As I spoke, I could see one of the faculty members getting really excited about my ideas and he had a lot to say in response.  I wanted to continue our discussion by e-mail, so I sent him a message yesterday to expand on my thoughts.  I was pleased when I got a nice response from him, and I enjoyed reading his comments and feedback.  After I finished reading the message, I looked at the header of the message and noticed that he had cc’d my message and his response to the Dean of the college.  The DEAN?!!  Whatever happened to asking someone, hey, would you mind if I shared your thoughts with this all-powerful administrator [whom you should bow to and kiss his/her feet on every occasion possible...]?  There was neither enough bowing nor feet kissing in that message.

Summer sprinkling

My summer wasn’t quite as fun and carefree as I had hoped, but I did manage to squeeze in a few very summery things, like blowing bubbles and eating lots of popsicles.  And tonight, as I took my evening walk, I ran through a sprinkler!  Someone was sprinkling two sections of their lawn which were divided by the sidewalk that I was traveling.  Ordinarily, I’d try to avoid the water when I’m wearing regular clothes, but the little kid voice in my head said, “Come on!  Just run through it!  It’s summer!”  So, I waited for it be over the sidewalk and I ran.  It was great fun!  And I still had most of my walk left to complete, so by the time I got home, I was dry again.

Blow bubbles.  Check!
Eat lots of popsicles.  Check!
Run through sprinkler.  Check!

Orientation: Welcome to Doctoral Studies

I’ve spent the last two days going through orientation for my doctoral program.  Phew!  It would be impossible to summarize everything, but here are a few noteworthy items:

- I had a lot of fun getting to know the other students in my cohort.  We will be going through a lot of stress and work together, and it’s good that we got to have fun and socialize yesterday.  We shared stories, talked about our research hopes, and shared tips about local places.  It was good.  And I felt so much less awkward than usual in social situations, so that was very good!

- One of our profs made a point to tell us that we have homework before the first day of class!  We have to do about 60 pages of reading and prepare answers to some questions about the readings, so that will be my weekend work.

- For about an hour during orientation, I wondered what in the world I’ve gotten myself into.  The current students were going on and on about how awful the first year is, how they never slept and were at the library until 2 a.m., etc.  OK guys, that was not helpful!  The prof in charge of that session made sure they said GOOD things about their first year after that because I think she could see us all planning our quick escape!

- Each new doctoral student in my area gets assigned two ambassadors who are veteran grad students who are supposed to keep an eye on us.  (Each pair of ambassadors has 12 students.)  My ambassadors are really cool.  One is a woman who looks a little like Punky Brewster and is super nice and very supportive.  She also likes the show “Top Chef”, which makes her a winner in my book.  *giggles*  The other is a guy from the Bahamas (yes, people actually live there!) who took pity on me at lunch when I couldn’t find a place to sit.

I think that’s about it.  The grad students were invited to about six BBQs this weekend (I kid you not!).  I may go to one…maybe.  Next weekend, I have three social things lined up that I will go to, but after that, I will have my head in books and papers for five years.

So many goodbyes

Today was my last day at my research job.  They had a popsicle party for me yesterday (I love popsicles!), and I received oodles of school supplies and a wonderful card from them.  It was hard to leave!  My boss and I enjoy working together so much and will miss each other a lot, but as she told everyone yesterday, there is a greater purpose for me ahead.

This is the third job I’ve left in the last year.  Last August 31, I left my first research job because the funding ended for that job.  In June, I left the university where I had been teaching (and had previously been a student).  And today was another ending.

All the goodbyes are hard.  I’m leaving places that have allowed me to do good work and learn a lot, places where I’ve felt safe and valued.  I’m leaving people who have cared for me so much (and the feelings are certainly mutual!).  All three last days have been emotionally draining, as I feel so much appreciation for everything and everyone, and I’m so aware of how much I’m leaving behind.

Tomorrow is the beginning of a new journey.  School orientation tomorrow will bring lots of new people in my life, and hopefully I’m finished with goodbyes for a while.

Anticipating School #14

Over the last several months, I’ve asked several people I know who have PhDs for advice on going through this process.  Some of them have PhD in math or math education, some have PhDs in totally unrelated fields.  Here is some of what they’ve told me:

1)  Work hard.

2) Decide on your dissertation topic early, and stick to it.  (See #3.)

3)  WAIT to decide on your dissertation topic because you don’t know enough yet to choose.  (See #2.)

4) Take some courses outside your program that will be fun for you.

5) From day one, keep a bibliography of papers you read because when you’re doing your research later and vaguely remember something interesting that you read three years earlier, you will not be able to find it unless you made a note of it.

6) Get some direct experience working with students in K-12 public schools.

My favorite advice came from a former student in my program, who wrote a list that was posted online.  He said, “Have a life outside of the school.  For example, take a dance class!”  I do believe that I’ll do just that!

Olympic Recap

The Beijing Olympics are pretty much over.  I’ve learned a lot about China during these Games, which is one of my favorite things about the Olympics.  I was startled to realize that beforehand, I didn’t even know how long the Great Wall is (4000 miles!).  So, clearly there was much to learn.

Here are a few extra thoughts about the Games:

1)  The Summer Games have a crazy amount of different competitions.  There are sports that I had never heard of or seen before in my life.  And all the track & field events, and the different classes of boxing, wrestling, weight lifting.  It is just a LOT.

2)  Speedwalking totally freaks me out!  It literally sends tingles up my spine to watch peoples’ hips wiggle that continuously.  That’s just not normal!

3)  Is it that hard to hold on to a baton?  Nuff said…

4)  I am perpetually amazed that world record times keep being broken.  Clearly, this cannot go on forever.  (Nobody will be able to swim or run 100m in zero seconds, for example.)  But one wonders when we’ll hit the actual human limit on speed.  There must be a limit, but what is it?  And will we know when we get there?

5)  The Vancouver Winter Olympics start on February 12, 2010!  That’s less than 18 months away!  Hooray!

Anticipating School #13

I do not have much more time to anticipate school!  I went and got my student ID today — and then stared at it for three minutes because my hair is SO short.  (I got it cut on Monday and somehow was still surprised when the picture showed me with such short hair!  *giggles*  I do like it!)  Next week is orientation, and then, *drum roll* SCHOOL!

I am getting well-versed in the specifics of what the next several years entail.  My program is five years (give or take), and here is what I know:

Year One
We start grad school with the university dictating exactly what courses we all have to take (four each semester), and I think everyone in my cohort will be assisting with their faculty advisor’s research this year.  We will not be expected to give talks anywhere outside the university, but we should be attending conferences elsewhere and joining professional organizations.  We are called “first year doctoral students” or “doctoral pre-candidates” at this point.

Year Two
Half of our courses are still dictated by the university, but we get to take some electives too.  Some of us will get to teach this year, and some will still be assisting with research (and some doing both).  We will be expected to at least present a poster, if not give a talk, at some kind of big conference somewhere in the universe.  (Is it too much to hope that Disney World will get all excited about math and host a conference this year?!)  We are all still doctoral pre-candidates in Year Two.

Year Three
With our course work just about finished as we begin Year Three (maybe just a couple of electives left to take), we are ready to attempt our preliminary exams, fondly called “prelims.”  In my case, the “exams” are actually three papers — two of which are on required topics and have to be defended in a formal oral defense, and one of which needs to be on my research and needs to be publishable.  After I pass my prelims, I will be a “doctoral candidate,” which basically means it’s all finished except the dissertation.  Woohoo!  I must be a candidate by the end of Year Three in order to get my funding for Year Four.  Good motivation, yes?  (Side note:  Doctoral candidates are actually eligible to apply for jobs, and though I don’t expect to apply for jobs until year five, it’s good to know there’s an early escape hatch if need be.)

Year Four
Research, research, research.  And did I mention research?

Year Five
Writing, writing, writing.  And when that’s all finished, defending the writing/research, and then revising, revising, revising.  And then?  GRADUATION!  And then?  Get a job!

And, that’s all there is.  Easy peasy, right?  *laughs*

All Doctor’d Out

So, I’ve made the rounds to all of my medical peeps now, including the eye doctor and the dentist.  I’ve been inspected from head to toe (more or less), and while all wasn’t perfect, I am off the hook with the docs for a couple of months anyway.  I’ll take a couple of doctor-free months anytime.

My pulmonologist is perplexed by my abnormal lung function tests, but the results aren’t bad enough to warrant more tests now given that my lungs looked “perfect” (her word) on the CT last year.  So we’ll see how things are next year.  My primary care doctor got an earful of updates from me about what all the other docs had to say, and we discussed my kidney issues again.  We’re still waiting on the test results from Mayo Clinic that will tell us whether I have polycystic kidney disease.  My doctor said that regardless of how those results come back, he wants me to see a nephrologist, but he’ll let me wait until we hear from Mayo before we pursue that consult.

So, my next stop will be bloodwork toward the end of October, before I see a few specialists later in the fall.

Gymnastics & controversies

It’s hard to believe the Olympic gymnastics events are ending.  Overall, I’m fairly pleased with the results, the exception being Nastia Liukin not getting the gold medal that she earned on uneven bars because of a silly tie-breaking rule.  That made me angry.  And a similar thing happened to her at the World Championships in 2005, where because of a weird rounding situation with the scores, she ended up in second when she was actually tied for first.

I am pretty tired of hearing the commentators go on and on about the age of the Chinese gymnasts.  Most sports don’t have age requirements, and I don’t think gymnastics should either given that elite gymnasts train hard from a young age anyway so keeping them out of big meets doesn’t really protect them.  It’s fine for the governing sports agencies to recommend, for safety reasons, that athletes not train like that until they are a little older.  But especially in countries with centralized athletic training, I don’t see them holding off on the harder training just because of rules or recommendations.  So, in my opinion, if they are training like that, they might as well compete and perhaps earn some recognition that could help them have a better life down the line.  Some people in the gymnastics community agree with that, some do not.  It is certainly one of the hot topics in the sport all the time.

I’m looking forward to seeing the last night of gymnastics competition on NBC this evening.  I know the results already, which is just as well because watching live Olympic gymnastics is very hard on my nerves!

Scattered

I feel very scattered these days.  Life is definitely moving toward school starting, and I basically have ten days now until I turn my life over to five years of full-time school again.  (We have two days of orientation before the semester begins.)  I had a long list of stuff I wanted to get done this summer, and between just being busy and having several health things and medical appts going on, my list is still long and my time is now short.  I feel like I’m forgetting stuff that needs to get done but can’t put my finger on what those things are.  I make lists, and I make great progress with the stuff on the lists, but then I remember a dozen other things.  Very, very scattered.

I think part of my sense that I’m totally forgetting to do something huge is that usually at this time of year, I’d be preparing syllabi and getting lesson plans polished up.  Now, that is something I definitely do not have to do this year!  I am a little bit happy that my late summer is not eaten up with lesson prep, and even a little more happy that I won’t spend any time this fall grading stuff, but I will miss teaching.  And I will miss my teaching colleagues, though I plan to crash their beginning of semester party in a couple of weeks.  *grins*

So, these days are a bit crazy, and my head is spinning a little bit as my life is changing yet again.  Bear with me.