Page count

1 week until the dissertation is due. 

I'm drinking coffee and eating Tums like they coordinate to make a healthy diet. What? Tums have calcium. I'm getting a lot of calcium.

Page count so far: 159.

Almost done. 

Back to the coffee pot.

Progress

It's almost like there's a countdown clock in the back of my head. Right now it's saying "T minus 5 weeks to graduation." Yup, 5 more weeks of school and I am done. Finished. No. Longer. A. Student. 

Naturally, the first project I've been making progress on is the dissertation. I won't bore you with details, because they pretty much bore me at this point. Instead, here's a picture of my work station, also known as the dining room table.

It got so bad I actually had to clean it off so I could focus and be more productive. Now the piles of papers are taking up room on the empty bookshelf (GP already packed up all the books for moving). 

Project number 2. Hey, remember how I like to knit? Yeah, I remembered too, and I've been doing some of it! I really forgot what a great stress reliever it is, and I've been taking breaks to knit a row or two before I start working on writing a new section. It's been going pretty well, because I have finally finished the body of the stole I've been knitting since the dawn of time. It's been so long since I blogged about it that I can't even remember the name of the pattern.

Ah, I remembered, sort of. It's the Victoria shawl with something or other border. I'm glad to finally be done with the body, because the border really is the reason I started knitting it in the first place. 

Alright, enough procrastination. Back to work.

Blogiversary and an update

Look at that! It's sometime around today that this here blog turns 2! Funny how time passes when you're not paying attention.

In other news, GP and I made it to Louisiana safe and sound. A 13 hour drive with lots of luggage, a thunderstorm, and a dog, but we made it. The itenerary for tomorrow looks like this:

morning - Gena's job interview

afternoon - house hunting

evening - night out in New Orleans!

If your reading this in the morning, around 10 am central time, send some good vibes my way.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

P.S. the link to the picture of Clark is also a link to a homemade ice cream recipe. Since it's 80ish degrees here in LA, I think that's a pretty appropriate recipe to link to!

Happy Mother's Day!

Virtual flowers for all you Moms reading. Thanks for all that you do!

Dissertating

I'm bored. Bored bored bored. I'm sitting at Bruegger's Bagels, downing coffee and writing the background section of my dissertation. Let me tell you, after a few days it gets really dull and full sentences are excruciating to put together. However, I will persevere! 

So, here's my schedule for the next 3 1/2 weeks until I have to turn this beast of a document in on June 4th. Today and tomorrow: finish the background (currently 26 pages - I imagine it'll round out at about 32). Next week: finish data collection and finish writing the results section. Week after: finish writing the discussion. Week after that: turn it in, puke from nerves, eat a ton of Tums, and drink a lot of rum. Then, defend it on June 25th, and move back to Texas for the month of July. Sound like a plan? I think so.

What else is going on these days? Well, I have a job interview! 

GP, in his extreme nerdiness that is rivaled only by my own, applied to graduate school for physics-related stuff. He got accepted to several programs, and finally decided to accept a position at a school in Louisiana! Yay, GP! Way to be a nerd! Naturally, because we'd prefer not to have to live in different time zones again, I applied for jobs in the area near where he'll be at school. My top choice employer emailed me back the same day, and I'll be interviewing with her this coming Friday. I'm very excited and feel like a real adult going for a real job interview. And the best part? No. More. School! While we're down there, GP and I will be looking for places to live for the 3 years we'll be in Louisiana.

I'm happy to be moving on to the next stage in my life, and excited about moving to Louisiana. Although I consider myself a Southerner being from Texas, I'm not really from the South, more the Southwest. When I moved to North Carolina 5 years ago, I was struck by how different the culture and history is from that of Texas. I mean, I knew that NC and TX were colonized by completely different countries, that NC has been a part of the USA since the Revolution, and that TX gained its independance from Mexico as a completely independant country that later joined the USA. But I never understood how those differences influenced the mindset and culture of a state until I left Texas. It actually explained a lot about the mindset of Texans. But I digress.

Depite the fact that Texas and Louisiana are neighbors, I am well aware of the cultural differences between the two states (hello, Louisiana Purchase and French influences!). It will be fun to learn more about the Cajun culture and to find some new recipes to share with ya'll. Also, I'll be really glad to move back to oak tree country and get out of pine country, which drives my allergies crazy!

So keep your fingers crossed that dissertation writing goes smoothly and that I do well on this interview. I'll keep you updated with little blurbs like this as time goes by. Maybe I'll even have some other news to share with you, like the fact that I have a new neice! My brother and his wife welcomed their newest baby on Thursday morning (I think it was Thursday, all the days run together for me). She's their 3rd, and I can't wait to meet her!