Halloween

Boo!  I saw someone on the bus in an angel outfit and my first thought was that this was a Weird Bus Person.  And then I remember, OH, it’s Halloween!  I knew that.

I like the little kids dressing up version of Halloween.  I’m all about little princesses and cowboys, and oh, they are so cute!  But I have a huge aversion to Halloween as an adult, where the focus in more on scary, scary things!  Last week, one of the blogs I read (not on my blogroll) asked if you would stay in a real haunted house overnight if someone paid you $5,000.  My reaction to that is, no, I wouldn’t even stay in a pretend haunted house overnight for ANY amount of money.  That is how much I do not like this kind of unnatural scaryness!  And it only gets worse as I get older.  So some part of me is always relieved when November arrives, and the scary is gone. 

Grad School #12

Last week, I went to my first dissertation defense.  Well, not my first dissertation defense (and please let there be only one!), but the first dissertation defense that I have witnessed, without having any responsibility in the situation whatsoever.

The dissertation is the big scary paper at the end of this long road in grad school.  (The beginning of grad school is the “easy” part, you see!)  After they teach you everything about a field, you are expected to do something that is new and exciting and significantly contributes to your field.  Like, cure chicken pox or develop “new math” or show how Einstein had it all wrong.  The dissertation is the main reason there are a lot of people walking around who have done all the course work in a doctoral program but do not have a PhD.

So, for someone to actually get to the end is a big deal.  As I sat in the room waiting for the defense to begin, I was thinking about my master’s thesis defense, which still stands up as one of the Top 5 Best Days of my life.  It was a day when I knew that I had accomplished something big and had gone farther than I thought I could.  It was the end of a stressful journey to that point in my program.  It was a thoroughly Big Day.

And now I’m in the very beginnings of this doctoral program.  Doctoral program…?!!  And some days, it’s stressful and some days, it’s grand!  From one week to the next, my mood and thoughts about it are never the same.  But always in the back of my mind, that which keeps me going and keeps my chin up on the harder days, is that I have a big goal and a strong sense of what I want to research and how I want to make a significant contribution to the field. 

So, as I watched the student in the last moments before his defense began – all dressed up and looking confident, chatting with everyone — I started to think that in 4 years or so, that will be me.

That will be me.

And my eyes filled with tears.

NaBloPoMo: Friday First Assignments

Alrighty, so here are the Friday First topics for November.  Take ‘em or leave ‘em!  *laughs*  You absolutely do not have to answer every question within the topics — they are just some extra prompts.

November 7th — First Experience with E-mail
When was it, through what “service”, who did you write to, any funny stories.

November 14th — First Time You Felt Grown Up (if ever! *giggles*)
How old were you, what were the circumstances.  (Thanks Denise for this idea — you get extra credit! *smiles*)

November 21st — First Big Purchase
“Big” is in the eye of the beholder and a little relative, of course, but when was the first time you felt like you were spending a LOT of money on something.

November 28th — First (You Choose)
Write about whatever First in your life that you’d like to share.  Some ideas:  first day of school or college, first crush, first car, first apartment, first time voting!

And that’s it!  Can’t wait for November!!

Dancing, Day 20: Halloween Edition!

We had sooooo much fun at my dance class tonight.  We learned a dance that goes to The Monster Mash.

THE MONSTER MASH!!  It was a graveyard smash!

(Sorry, couldn’t resist!  *giggles*)

It’s a fantastic song to dance to, and the steps were pretty easy to learn.  And that was my 20th class.  That’s a lot of dancing!  Fun, fun, fun. 

Let’s Get Ready to NaBloPoMo!

Only one week left until National Blog Posting Month!  Several people from my blogroll, plus some friends of the blogroll, are participating.  And someone suggested that all of us write about the same topic once each week, but nobody suggested topics.  I have topics coming out my ears and can come up with some (you may be writing about math and gymnastics then!), but we still have time to make a list.

One idea that I have is we could do Friday Firsts, and come up with a unique list of “Firsts” that people could write about (my first idea was to write about your first experience with e-mail — where did you have it, who did you write to, funny stories, etc.).  There are only four Fridays in November, so anyone got three other interesting, universally applicable and not too personal firsts?  *giggles*

And for people who don’t think they can come up with topics for every day for NaBloPoMo, here are some quick ideas for posts (in addition to stuff that is, you know, actually going on in your life):  photos, quotes, childhood stories (about your friends, favorite activities, worst memories, best memories, favorite Christmas gift, favorite trip, career aspiration you had as a child), stories your family tells about you, people you idolized growing up (could be famous or not), what’s on your frig, pet peeves, links to your favorite stuff online, etc.  Plus, we have election day and Thanksgiving in November, and posts about those write themselves!  We could also do guest spots on each other’s blogs if need be – I’m happy to write about/for any of you who I actually know (…but not every day!) — or someone in your family could write a guest spot (like your kids could do it – that would be fun!).

So, join the fun!  It’s easier than you think!  It’s good for your brain!  It’s calorie-free!  LOL!

—

Silly side note re my title today:  At the gymnastics meets that I go to every winter, they start the meet by dimming the lights, having spotlights dance all over the arena, and starting the “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!” music.  People who haven’t been to the meets before just about fall over laughing!  Rumble?  At a gymnastics meet?

Bonus dancing

Months ago, I mentioned that a friend from church knew a place that hosts English Country Dancing (like you see in the Jane Austen movies) once per month.  Tonight was my first night going!  There were about 150 people there.  It was fun.  It takes a lot of energy though!  And, I was somehow surprised that it doesn’t look the same when everyone is in regular clothes.  Come on people, we need period costume so it’s all pretty!  *giggles*

When I listened to the director’s commentary on the recent version of “Pride & Prejudice,” I remember the director talking about how long it took to choreograph the dance scenes and how hard it was to figure out how to fit the dialogue in with the dance.  Having now danced some of these dances, it’s hard to imagine having to not only move that much, remembering all the steps, but also remembering all your lines!  I’m triply impressed with the actors who pulled it off and the extras who kept up with them!  I don’t think I’ll be doing English Country Dancing as an extra anytime soon.  *laughs*

Now, Country Western Line Dancing, I could do!  And I’d like to line dance with John Travolta, please!

Grad School, #11

It’s been a weird week at school.  We had no class on Tuesday, and today, we were all like, “Oh man…do we have to go to class?”  Give us a day off, and we want a week!  Give us a week off and we may never come back.  Ha!

We are in the meat of the semester now though.  We turned in our first big paper earlier this week, and our stats midterm is next week.  And I have some sort of portfolio due next week, though the details of that are especially vague (which unfortunately is the theme of that class…but don’t get me started on that!).  My day today was absolutely crammed with class and extra stuff we had to attend, and tomorrow is the same.  My brain hurts!

Are these the dog days of the semester?  This mid semester point is when every prof is like, “Hey!  We should have an exam!  That sounds like fun!”  (Of course, I know from being on the other end of the spectrum, that mid-semester as the prof isn’t fun either!  And in truth, it’s easier being the student because you only have to do one thing, not grade 100+ of that thing…  But let’s pretend I’m oblivious to that!  Lalalalala!)

Week 8 of grad school?  Crabby Week.

Medical problems? Who me?

It’s been two months since I wrote a post that was tagged as “medical” and two months since I’ve seen a doctor!  But I did get poked last week — in fact, I got the requisition for that round of blood tests on my birthday, which just made me laugh.  This is my life — birthday cards and blood draw requisitions!

My labs came back reasonably OK.  My electrolytes are all just a tiny bit off from our target values, but we always have to increase my meds at this time of year anyway because the furnace (evil furnace!) adds an extra challenge to my hydration.

Any day now, I could be hearing about results from Mayo Clinic which will tell me if my kidney cysts are just a fluke or if they are part of a disease process.  Some part of me wants to e-mail them to push for the results since I’ve been waiting patiently for 5.5 months now (they told me “up to six months” for results).  But part of me likes this blissful ignorance and a life without a kidney specialist, though my doctor says he’s sending me to a nephrologist any which way anyway, so I’m not sure who I think I’m fooling by putting it off.  I’m seeing four of my five doctors in the next 10 weeks, and they will want to know that I’ve been in touch with Mayo recently, so I should probably go ahead and e-mail them and see what they have to say.

My break from medical people was nice while it lasted though.

Dancing, Day 19

We did another dance with lots of turns tonight.  It wasn’t as confusing as last week, but we still got all disoriented, so we had lots of laughs!

We had a change of venue for our class tonight and got to dance on wood floors instead of tile.  That was such a nice improvement!  They may never get us to go back to our regular place now!

Next week will be my 20th dance class of the year!!!  I can’t believe it.  This has truly been such a highlight of my year!

The paper

A few days ago, I wrote that my writing process was going well with my first big paper for school.  That didn’t last long.  I seemed to pick up a case of Draftitis — you know, the writing illness that makes you write 2/3 of a draft and then toss it and start over…and over and over.  I had a fairly solid idea of what I wanted to write, but then I’d question whether it was focused enough or I’d kind of stumble upon a new idea while I was writing and want to take the paper a whole different direction.  Going into the weekend, I already had a decent partial draft (nearly complete) of my paper written, and yet I spent nine hours spinning my wheels in Draft Land yesterday, writing and re-writing and re-writing.  Argh!

I remember this kind of thing happening sometimes before.  As much as I like to write, if I don’t “feel” a paper, then it’s still just incredibly hard to finish it.  I just get stuck because I know it’s not quite what I want to say, but I don’t know how to get to where I want and forcing it doesn’t ever work.  So, when I went to bed (quite late) last night, I felt farther away from a finished paper than I did when I woke up that morning!  And I had a busy day ahead of me, and time is ticking on getting this thing done.

This morning, I got up early to work on the paper again for an hour before church.  Still no luck.  I had movie plans with my Mom this afternoon, and then a family party (and another chance to see baby Sophia — yay!).

When I got home at 4:15, I looked at all my many notes about the paper and told the notes, “It’s time to rock the house on this paper!”  (Yes, I’m talking to paper now…!)  An hour later, I printed out a complete draft of a paper than I’m quite pleased with.  Phew!  There will be no more major re-writes, just polishing and double checking.  But, it’s bascially done!  *falls over*