Five Random Bits

A quintet of randomy goodness…

… My kitchen floor was soaking wet when I got home today.  I stepped onto the floor mat in front of the sink and heard that distinctive “squish” sound and thought oh boy, this can’t be good.  Turns out that a gallon of distilled water in my cupboard had apparently been leaking all day.  Quite the mess.

… I got through all of September without buying gas for my car!  I filled my tank on August 26th or 27th and still have half a tank left.  Hooray for wonderful public transportation!

… My church had a big celebration on Sunday which included celebrating the exact (to the day) 50th anniversary of the dedication of the current church building.  It is very likely that my father’s grandparents were there when the building was dedicated in 1958.  I got goosebumps thinking about that as I sat in the pew on Sunday.

… I am always amazed at how good it feels to just take 15 minutes and straighten up things around my apartment mid-week.  Just rinsing some empties or recycling some boxes/papers or taking the trash out or dealing with a pile of mail or putting some stuff away feels so good.  That kind of stuff drives me crazy if I notice it as I’m flying out the door in the morning or coming home exhausted at the end of the day.

… Tomorrow is OCTOBER, my very favorite month of the year!

Dancing, Day 16

Today was one of those days when I needed my dance class.  I was pretty crabby and exhausted this morning after dealing with medical issues over the weekend that totally wiped me out.  I took extra vitamins through the day, in hopes of helping my body recharge.  By this evening, I was starting to feel better and happy to get out on the dance floor!

We learned a dance called Zatchu today, which we’ll be performing at the city wide dance show in December.  It’s fun!  And it’s hard enough that it will take a few weeks for us to get it down really well.  It’s cute and a little sassy, which is a combination I like in dance!  And it has a bit of Chorus Line-ness to it with a couple of kicks.  Not high kicks, mind you, but kicks nonetheless.  Look out Broadway! 

This is what I’m talking about

So, this is an actual sentence from a paper that I’m reading this weekend:

“This view is based on Freudenthal’s so-called didactical phenomenology.”

Some weeks, our readings for class are all like this, where you sit there and say “Ummm…whose what???”  I don’t know this Freudenthal, and I sure as heck don’t have the slightest idea what a didactical phenomenology is.

I told one of our profs last week that I was dancing when I read our papers for class because that week, one of the papers actually included data.  Data, Glorious Data!  That stuff, I get.  But, reading some of this other stuff feels like walking through a lake of mud.  My little pocket dictionary has a permanent place on my end table now.

Note to the academic world:  There is no shame in writing in plain English.

Grad School #7

I have survived four weeks of grad school.  Woohoo!  And since I seem to be in a pattern of naming weeks (Week of Joy, Week of Strategy, Week of Recognition), I suppose I’d name this week:  The Week of CrazyBusy.  Yes, that’s all one word.  CrazyBusy.

Part of the crazy busy was my own fault, as I had several personal plans.  So, evenings that I’d usually spend at home reading (and reading and reading) were spent out.  Plus, I went to two special lectures at school, and I was on campus every day for the first time this semester.  (I’ve had at least one day at home every week until now.)  It was just a lot for one week.

Busyness aside though, grad school continues to be a truly great experience.  I feel like I’m finding my footing in this new world — learning so much but building a foundation under me, so that when we have our first big papers due in the weeks ahead, I feel like I can say something substantial and relevant.  I’m getting better and better at figuring out what we’re supposed to be seeing in all the papers we read — identifying the argument/ideas, assessing whether the author justifies their thoughts enough, figuring out counterarguments.  It’s hard for me to get my head around finding fault in published papers, but we are expected to find the holes in the arguments and in the research methods (if the paper is from a research study).  All of that analysis is critical to us doing our own research in ways that are solid and justified, but it is a process to learn to see what’s not there, you know?  It’s like going from just enjoying watching movies to being a movie critic.  You have to look at everything in a totally different way and be a little crabby about things sometimes!

And hey, someday soon, I hope to actually remember what “tacit” means — that darn word is used in every class (and often!), and I have some kind of mental block about it and have to look it up every time!  *laughs*

Oh baby!

I get to meet my cousin’s new baby Sophia next week.  *squeals*  My newborn gift is typically photos of the baby for the parents (assuming they live somewhere near), but I decided to pick up a little something pink for Sophia too as she was such a very long-awaited baby for her parents.

So, I went to Babies R Us.  This store isn’t my usual baby shopping place.  In fact, I don’t think I’d been to a Babies R Us for about 16 years!  As someone who adores babies and all things babyish, it is an overwhelming store — I just want to buy one of everything, thankyousomuch!  Picking just one little thing…or maybe two…is nearly impossible.  I carry around one thing, then find something cuter, so I put the first thing back, and oh my gosh, it is just insane.  (Fair warning to anyone who ever ends up with me in that store!)  After walking around with no less than three of the cutest outfits you ever did see, I finally found exactly what I was looking for.

And it only took an hour.

Wireless, baby!

My advisor’s grant purchased a laptop computer for me with all the latest bells and whistles, including of course, wireless access to the internet.  I was finally able to get the computer this morning.  So I’m coming to you live from a random table in a random building via wireless technology.  It’s a crazy world!

Rumors of my sabbatical

After a long (but good) day in class today, I went to a retirement party this evening for one of the wonderful professors at the university where I studied and taught before this fall.  I had a course in differential equations with him as an undergraduate, and a year later, he coached me to great success in a math competition.  Then, he was on my Master’s thesis committee.  And then I helped him coach students for math competitions (with some successes)!  So we have lot of connections!  And, of course, everyone from the department was there, so I got to catch up with all my favorite people.  They said how much they miss me (I miss them too — a whole lot!), and that they hope I’ll be back there some day.  And one of them said, “In fact, I heard from a student that you’re just on a one-semester sabbatical!”  Several others said, “I’ve heard that too!”  We all had such a laugh out of that!  As soon as one student says something as though it’s fact, things circulate like wildfire around there.  And the students have good reason to make up stories, as I only told my very last class that I’d be leaving, so the others are probably thinking that surely I wouldn’t leave without saying something.  And I’m still responding to e-mail from old students asking for things, as though I’m around.  So I see how the rumor started!  *laughs*  

So, I guess I’m on a one-semester sabbatical that just happens to last five years.

Dancing, Day 15!

My fall dance class started tonight.  Yay!  It was Day 1 of this class, but Day 15 for me since this is my third session.  We learned the “Stroll Cha Cha” today, which was a nice flowy, fairly easy dance to start everyone off.  And much to my delight, we also danced Duchess.  I suspect the teacher knew that if she didn’t include that one, I’d cry.  *giggles*

Next week, we’ll start learning the dance that we’ll be dancing at a show in December.  The teacher changed her mind about what dance we’d do (the original plan was Red Hot Salsa), so now we’re going to learn a new dance to a Garth Brooks Christmas song.  Sounds good to me!

There are nine elementary school teachers (all from the same school) taking the dance class together this time.  After we learned our first dance, they decided they HAVE to do a line dance at their school talent show!  Can you imagine their young students?  I can totally see hundreds of kids going crazy for their teachers dancing at the talent show!

It was good to get back out on the dance floor.  Can’t wait for next week!

Conversations with a 3 year old

I was so glad to have time for play today, as I had a chance to play — and talk — with my cousin’s three year old little boy!  I was scolded for singing the Veggie Tales theme song while he was pretending to be Mario (wrong theme song — sorry bud!) and we had about a thousand hilarious little converations.  I have not laughed so hard in a long time!

Discussing the Pixar short film, Mike’s New Car…
Me:  Remember how Mike drove his car away but the wheels came off?
L:  The wheels came off?
Me:  Yes.
L:  The wheels came off the car?!!
Me:  Yes!
L (looking horrified):  Ummm, that’s Not Good!

Discussing dinner…
L:  What are you having for dinner?
Me:  Salmon.  And Aunt Nancy will have salmon too, but not Uncle Don because he doesn’t like salmon.
L:  Uncle Don doesn’t like Sam I Am?

Discussing my homework…
Me:  I have to read a 200 page dissertation.  Aaaahhhh!
L:  A 200 pagetation?
Me:  Yes.  Can you believe it?
L:  (shakes head)  Impossible!

Movie, anyone?

Just when I thought I was going to collapse under the weight of schoolwork (did you see my stress level going up?), my homework and reading is actually going faster than I expected for a change.  I may be finished with stuff for three of my four classes by the end of this evening.  And it’s only Saturday.  Whatever will I do with my Sunday?!  *giggles*

I actually looked at the movie listings to see if “Wall-E” was at the dollar theater yet, as I never saw it at the regular theater this summer (and Pixar films are some of the few I’ll pay full price for).  It hasn’t reached the dollar theater yet.  And the new movie that I really want to see — that Richard Gere and Diane Lane one with the weird name — doesn’t come out until next weekend.

But, what a treat to even look at the movie listings!  There is LIFE outside of (or despite?) grad school.  Who woulda thunk it?