The good list

Despite all my down posts about graduate school, I do keep track of all the good things in my life too. I could write about how awful each week at school is, but instead...

I have a new windshield. It is amazing. I had two big chips (one with a small crack). Then I was changing my wipers and accidentally dropped the metal wiper arm right onto the windshield. I definitely needed a new windshield after that! AND, I have no deductible on glass. I highly recommend accidentally dropping your wiper arm on your windshield if you do not have a deductible on glass. My brother-in-law said he could not do that. His loss. :-)

The big 3-0 is next month and my parents apparently feel all bad that I am "alone". So they still have a LOT of wood to burn at their house and figured the weekend after my birthday would be a good time to do that. A bunch of my friends from different groups are coming. It will be fun! Fire, hot tub, drinking, friends and family, possibly the boy (if HIS experiments allow for it).

It is sunny out a lot, and it is light when I leave work. Granted it is dark in the morning again since the time change last weekend, and so I have not gotten my butt out of bed to get to the gym, but oh well. I've been walking to work almost every day (~one mile each way). It is nice to get the fresh air.

I am at work. Weekends are actually a nice time to be here because it is so quiet. I do have to go check some things off my to do list now though...call the body shop because they messed up my tail light, send of some job inquiry cover letters/CVs, order stuff for the course I assist with...Time to get productive.

Thank goodness that is over

There is a lot going on at school. In general, I am feeling good and hopeful about my current experiments. The past couple of weeks have been rough though. Two of the five of us who came in together just defended. Last Friday was the day of one of those defenses, as well as my regular department seminar. That friend pushed to finish so she could move to be with her fiancee and has no solid job lined up until next spring. Today, my friend who defended has everything I wish I had right now - a loving husband, a baby girl on the way, and her PhD completed (my preference is probably in that order).

To all of you who say it will be worth it in the end, I hope I feel that way when it is over. And I would not quit after the time I have put in. Right now though, and for the past couple of months, I am not sure this PhD is really what I should have done or really needed to do. Sure I will make my family call me doctor (even if it is in the Ross Gellar sense) and be able to run a lab and teach at the college level if I so choose. I really think I would have been just as happy getting a masters in teaching and going with it. The grass is always greener on the other side I suppose.

I really did not know how I was going to do the past two defenses. Is that selfish? I had warned my friends at school that I could have potentially been a mess. I basically did not think about my friends finishing and me not finishing on those days. It helped.

Last week a faculty member emailed me to see if I could host an accepted graduate student for two nights over spring break. I said no. There are a MILLION reasons I could give. I stuck with a white lie about already having plans those nights and my apartment not being conducive to having guests who I do not know because you have to walk through my bedroom to get to my bathroom. Plus, I added, shouldn't he ask one of the first or second years who have a better perspective on how the program is now? Other arguments I did not point out: I am bitter and jaded; after you are finished with coursework, grad school is a personal experience that is based on your relationship with your advisor, your research, and your outside life and I am to that point; I took three years off before grad school and am almost 30 years old, whereas this student is still in college and will be going straight though; he mentioned the department paying for groceries and there is no way in h*&% I would be cooking for her. Basically, it could have made for an awkward TWO nights.

So for now, I will distance myself from incoming and early career grad students in the program, try desperately (and thoroughly) to finish my experiments by June, and keep my eye on the end of the tunnel.

Off to read a third friend's thesis...

Recycling fiend

My spring cleaning movement is kicking in. It was somewhat prompted by a shopping trip. I got ~$150 worth of shoes (winter boots and some close-toed casuals that I can wear spring/summer) for $50 (I LOVE good deals), so get rid of my fine but old winter boots, I must!

I started with all my clothes, but my dresser. I am getting there with donating clothes I do not wear, but can only let go of a few what-if-I-want-to-wear-it-someday-? clothes at a time.

Now to the recycling.

I have two old cell phones. Memory cleared. Ready to print out donation labels and send in to Cell Phones for Soldiers. All the boxes and packaging? Into my recycling bin. The batteries the group will take as well.

But I found information CDs with the phones (I keep all that crap). Did you know you can send in CDs and DVDs to recycle instead of throwing them out? Here are a couple of options: Free CD Recycling and CD Recycling Center.

Anyone heard of Freecycle? It is a great way to get rid of things like the baskets that come with gift baskets that you will never use. Or a microwave stand that you do not feel like trying to sell. Or stationary and stickers that you no longer use. Or moving boxes. Anything that someone else could use but you no longer are! (I also find that crafts stuff can be used by nieces and nephews if you do not have your own children and craft center at home. Just ask my sister.) I got my cat pan from freecycle and have gotten rid of stuff easily. See if there is a group in your area!

I need to go through my sheets and towels too. If you have a giant stack in your garage already, but old towels that you do not use anymore, call your local animal shelter. My parents were cleaning out theirs and had a giant garbage bag of towels. I showed up at the BIG shelter/animal hospital here with them and they were THRILLED. Perfect for the animal bedding.

There is always Craigslist if you have something you want to sell but not enough for a yard sale.

Alright - this post was really a ploy to not cut my cat's nails. I dread the scratches I will have. Oiy.

Little by little

Last Monday I spend half an hour digging out my car before walking to campus. Today, I have my windows open as the temperature approaches 60 (in the shade!!!). Think I will have to get dressed and head head outside to see the last of the snow. I hope all of those crocuses I had seen pushing through the dirt last weekend were not deterred by the storm. Certainly spring is almost here.

In like a lion

I kinda figured I would skip they gym this morning and just shovel. Campus is closed, but I have experiments to do. Such is science. This is my car after half an hour of shoveling. I even cleared out the fire hydrant that kitty-corner to my house. I will never understand why people do not do that automatically (as they are supposed to by law I believe). If your house was on fire, wouldn't you want the firemen to have ready access to the hydrant?

Anyway, I'm off to work. I love the quiet of a snow fall when the only thing you can really hear are plow trucks.

How sweet.

CF keeps leaving sweet links to songs on my Facebook page. For all the songs and lyrics I know, I can not conjure up the appropriate sentiment. This one is quite nice though.

Stay with me till time turns over
I want to feel my feet leave the ground
Take me where the whispering breezes
Can lift me up and spin me around

If I could I would...
Hear you laughing as we go
Flipping backward through the doors and through the windows...
I'm melting into nothing