What are you doing New Years Eve?

For the fourth year in a row, my extended family gathered at the Finn Center to ring in the New Year at 5 p.m. local time (when it’s midnight in Finland, where my Mom’s family is from).  And for the second year in a row, we had four generations of our family there, from 3 year old Lucas to 89 year old Ruth.  It is a fun tradition!  And Lucas had us all laughing hysterically.

I actually had Lucas at my place for much of the day before the party, and we washed dishes (his favorite thing!), played a memory/matching game with regular playing cards, and went to the library.  The random things he says now are so hilarious, and he left my place saying, “When the sharks went away, it was time to go home” which I’m sure his Mom will wonder what in the world we were doing that brought that up!

So, I’m in pajamas now three hours before the real midnight here, having already rung in the new year once.  Do I have to do it again?  *laughs*

Some thoughts about 2008

Last year, I did a five-day blog extravaganza of all the Best Things about the year 2007.  It certainly went down as one of the best years of my adult life and set into motion a lot of the good things about this year.

2008 was more of a year of extremes — some great highs (grad school, dancing!), but some significant lows too (leaving two jobs that I adored, lots and lots of health woes).  I learned things about myself this year (that I can be a grad student and enjoy it) and about other people (that people are infinitely more understanding than I ever imagine they will be).  A big part of this year for me is that I am completely in awe of all the new people and new experiences in my life.  And so, two of the best parts of this year for me are… 

(1)  I made a couple of friends this year who are the kinds of friends who dig deeper, who don’t let me gloss over things, who somehow can read into my expressions or read between lines of e-mails to know when I’m having a hard time.  They are on the front lines, cheering me on and ready to listen to me when I need to talk…and I’ve had amazing conversations with each of them.  I am blessed beyond words with their friendships.

~ and ~

(2)  My life improved in a totally unexpected way this year with my dance class, where I stepped into a world of pure fun and reconnected with my love of dance and of performance.  It was a total escape for me, like stepping off the city street into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory!  There was such a lightness and joy to the whole experience of the class.  Nobody there knew anything about me, nobody had any expectations.  People just saw my long legs and boundless enthusiasm!  It is a gift to be somewhere where the impressions and expectations are so pure and uncomplicated.

Medical Updates

I’ve had an “interesting” few weeks with medical stuff and lots of days of feeling poorly, and we are pretty sure that the root of the problem is a marked decline in my thyroid function.  I am waiting to hear from my primary care doctor with a treatment plan, pending a second round of test results.

Other stuff coming up…  I’ll have gynecologic tests on Friday.  And Mayo Clinic is promising results of genetic tests for polycystic kidney disease in January (finally!), so I have an appt with a kidney specialist here in early February.  Lots of medical stuff.  *sigh*

If you’re looking for fun…

…don’t ask me!  I spent much of the afternoon filling out tax forms (with estimated numbers at this point) to get a feel for how much my refunds will be, and then I topped off the afternoon by figuring out my budget for 2009 and ordering four of my winter textbooks!

My advisor at school was laughing at me when we had a day off class in October, and I spent it cleaning my bathtub and running errands.  Her solution to my mis-spent break was that I need a cat!

On the second day of Christmas

Our Christmas celebrations were nice and peaceful.  Lovely church services, family get-togethers, playing with my brother’s dogs, and eating homemade apple pie were some highlights!  A certain three year old declared that “Christmas is ruined!” when he misplaced his watch, which made us all laugh until we had tears streaming down our faces!  He said it with such genuine despair!  Such a funny kid!

At various points today, I’ve thought that it was Sunday or that it was January 2nd.  Get me out of a routine, and I’m totally lost!  And I’m having a hard time just being this week, after I got so used to using every moment of the day wisely to get school stuff done.  Of course, I could get started on winter semester things, but I think I’ll hold off on that for another day or two.  *laughs*  I have medical stuff going on over this break (more on that soon), but my focus in the days ahead is to make plans with friends and pay some attention to the non-school parts of my life.

Merry Christmas!

“But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”  (Luke 2:10-11)

Merry Christmas to all!  I hope you have wonderful celebrations!

Waiting for baby news (updated!)

One of my friends is at the hospital to have her baby right now!  I am 800-ish miles away, pacing, even though the news probably won’t come until tomorrow!  I don’t do end-of-pregnancy waiting very well, as it turns out.  *laughs*  And we don’t know the gender of this baby or any chosen names, so there will be oodles of news when the baby arrives!!

One of my classmates is pregnant and due next month.  I will be watching her like a hawk when our semester begins!  I’ll try to refrain from asking “Is it time?  Is it time?” anytime she moves.   And then I’ll be waiting for baby news from five cousins in the new year…  I may wear out my carpet with all the pacing!

* * *

Update!  Baby Julia arrived on Dec 23rd.  Everyone is doing well, and the family will go home on Christmas Day!

Fa la la la la

My Christmas greetings/gifts preparation got going very late this year, but I got my cards mailed on Thursday and got my shopping all started — and finished – today.  Phew!  We had a substantial snow storm yesterday, with more on the way over the coming days, so I was glad to get things done on this clear day.  The crowds were crazy, the malls were busy, traffic was insane, little kids were being dragged hither and yon (one poor little boy said to his Dad, “You won’t let me get a drink even though I’m dehydrated?!” - he was much too young to know that word!).  Somehow I’m glad that I missed most of the craziness this year!

Grad School #18: Favorite Things

My favorite things about grad school so far…

1.  You can probably guess that my classmates are a favorite thing, perhaps the most favoritist thing!  I love how quickly we got to know each other, how much we all take care of each other, how much we laugh, and that there is a spirit of cooperation rather than competition among us.

2.  I loved doing class observations for my advisor’s research project.  It was so much fun to watch someone teaching with an eye on certain aspects of how they were involving students, etc.  Of all the things that I did this semester, that was my favorite.

3.  I loved attending colloquia (research lectures) and feeling like I belonged there.  I had attended many before but always felt out of place, and it was really nice to go and feel part of a community of scholars in attendance.

4.  I learned a million things this semester, from who Horace Mann is to how the demographic questions are changing in surveys (!) to how challenging it is to transcribe and code videos.  I also learned a lot of new words!  And I have Word Wish List on the white board in my office at school that has a list of words I need to understand before winter term, including ethnographic and epistemology.

5.  I loved that grad school felt manageable to me.  My biggest fear going back to school (again!) was that I would not be able to keep up with the workload, or that I would be able to do so but at the expense of my health or mental well-being.  Although our workload was certainly heavy this semester, I didn’t ever feel like I had to make a difficult choice between getting something done and taking care of myself.  It felt easy to balance things out in a way that was healthy for me.  And I am most grateful for that.

Under the Weather

I am not feeling well this week — currently running a fever but also having problems with my chronic health issues.  So I’ve been snuggled up under a double-fleece blanket for many hours today.

It’s snowing here right now.  I glanced outside a few minutes ago, and the snow is piling up and absolutely gorgeous!  There were no footprints so it’s just all one big blanket of white.