crazy math

so..i was thinking about what i was doing at this time last year and i remembered that i was at my 10 year high school reunion in iowa. which means that it has been 11 years since i graduated from high school...making me th oldest person ever. :)

after that i started thinking about how many years i've been in school so far. that would be 22 years. how crazy is that? and i'm not even done yet!

here's hoping it's only a year and a half more.

:)

doink doink

i'm a little bit addicted to law and order svu right now. USA isn't helping much with the marathon that they are running right now. :) luckily it's summer and my schedule is much more laid back, so i can afford to lay in bed and watch some riveting television. :) if only Kroger would deliver some guacamole ingredients so i don't have to get up.

so i haven't written in a while. this has been a busy week. lots of home improvementy things going on and a trip to IKEA with my roommate yesterday. we both hadn't been there before and we both loved it! already looking forward to go back.

met with my committee chair today and i will probably be defending my proposal sometime really soon. just have to narrow it down a bit more and will hopefully work on that tomorrow since i've been pretty unproductive today.

uh...can't write anymore. must get back to the doink doink.

most boring post yet

hi guys. i think i've done a pretty good job of posting witty and somewhat insightful thoughts on this thing. today is not one of those days. i've been working on typing up my "Things To Do: Dissertation" list and thought i'd post it here. this might be a huge mistake because then you'll all be on my ass to get this stuff done. but so far i'm doing good and should still graduate before tim. hehehehe...

Things to Do: Dissertation/Graduation


Spring 2005

- Assemble Committee (complete)
- Thesis Publication (complete)
- Southwest meeting (complete)
- Dissertation proposal (complete)
- 2 courses (complete)
- File Degree Plan (still have to turn it in to OGS)


Summer 2005

- Defend proposal
- Put together prelims list
- IRB
- Research design for NM project
- Lit review chapter
- Pre-interviews


Fall 2005
- Last two courses
- Austin interviews
- Write introduction and methods chapters
- Do some kind of OGS paperwork that I'm sure is required at this point? (exam request or something like that?)
- Take preliminary exams
- Publication?
- Move?

Spring 2006
- NM and IA interviews
- Write my ass off
- Register for 6 hours of research

there...now you all now my master plan for the next year or so. here's hoping i keep on task and get all of this done. finishing your Ph.D. has a lot to do with jumping through various hoops with a bit of academic hazing thrown in, as well as a whole lot of research and reading.

random thoughts

so yesterday i was driving to school and heard an advertisement on the radio that you could go to a brake place and they would do a visual inspection for free. correct me if i'm wrong, but a visual inspection? doesn't that just mean that they will use their eyes to look at your brakes? other places charge for that? "yep, you got brakes. saw that you stopped when you got here so they must be working since you didn't crash through the office....that'll be $29.95." weird. maybe the charge for aural break inspections?

my other random thought when i was in my car later that day was that it has been two years since my ex-boyfriend and i parted ways in the relationship realm. mind you, i was not mourning that fact...it just occurred to me that two years ago a bunch of shit went down. the crazy thing that i couldn't seen then but could see not too long after is that that event set me on an awesome path that i wouldn't be on had circumstances been different. i moved back to texas, reconnected with great friends, and met a bunch of great new people. i get to work with one of the most respected professors in my field. i'm going to get my Ph.D. soon (i hope!) and there are some other things that i won't put on here, but are still really good. i'm not the best catholic in the world (*father dennis chortles at this point*), but things like make me realize that god is at work in my life. from a really crappy time two years ago, so much great stuff ended up happening. makes me feel good about what's coming up. even if life doesn't happen like my planny brain has in mind, who knows what good things might happen anyway?

by the way, this is a great story about my roommates: http://www.theeagle.com/aandmnews/051405graduation.php

shiner bock with lunch

i went to lunch with tim smith today at a favorite local spot, fitzwilly's. pretty much everyone who reads this literary triumph knows about fitz's...but if you don't and come to college station, we'll take you there and you too will profess its glory.

anyway, we had a fun time chatting and mocking each other and mocking people we know. we shared a pitcher and some cheesefries and some banter (like when tim told me i could dunk my aggie ring in metamucil and prune juice when i get...it was harsh but he owed me one)..and it was a nice break from an otherwise very uneventful day. advising is as slow as molasses (whoa...old timey analogy...i'm sure i'll be called grandma for that one), which is actually kind of a nice break. i should use this time to be productive and read or something, but instead i update my blog and check email like a fiend. fiend i tell you!

if the rest of summer break goes like this i will get very little sleep, very little accompished, but will drink a lot of beer for lunch. i suppose there are worse things? :)

AVOCADO UPDATE

i love sara. check this out: http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/item/9037.html

now i don't have to feel as guilty about all the guac. avocados are still our friends. :)

avocados=very green vegetable oil

i hesitate to post this at all because i know that a lot of you probably really like avocados. as you should, they are f'in great! they taste good, they have a good texture, you can use them on a bunch of things...they rock! sure you almost always cut your thumb off trying to remove that giant seed thing in the middle. but it's worth it. you have another thumb. they are crazy little slimy green pods of deliciousness.

yesterday i went over to tim's house after work to drink shiner and eat guacamole, which he made with 4 small avocados among other things. it was an assload of guac. and between himself, me, and lidia...we polished it all off. we came up with this plan to avoid eating cheese fries at fitzwilly's. well my friends, apparently it wouldn't have mattered much. check out this scary ass nutritional information about avocados: http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-001-02s00h8.html the only saving grace is that they are low in sodium, but i'm pretty sure the tortilla chips and salt added to the guac took care of that benefit for us. i'm pretty sure i'll be extending my time at the gym today!

the good news is that mcdonald's has a really good new "salad." salad gets put in quotes because it's apples, grapes, a cup of low-fat yogurt, and candied walnuts. it actually is pretty healthy, which hopefully balances out a bit of the caloric intake from yesteday. see for yourself: http://app.mcdonalds.com/bagamcmeal?process=item&itemID=10118

back to doing butt clenches at my desk. :) stupid evil avocados!

great weekend

after a very stressful school year, i got to wrap it up with a great weekend! i started thinking the other day about this year and just how crazy it has been. nuttiness with jobs, health scares with my family, friends moving on to new adventures, varying motivation to do school work, and so on and so forth. this has been a trying school year in a number of ways. so, it was nice to spend some time with a person who has helped me out so many times this year.

i found dave attell tickets a few months ago and bought them as a way to say thanks to mike for all the times he's bailed me out this year. we had a great weekend. stayed at a cool hotel in downtown houston (http://www.magnoliahotelhouston.com/) and ate at a really good restaurant that is becoming one of my all-time favorites (http://www.caferedonion.com/). we went to see dave attell on saturday night. you'll recognize dave for the show insomniac on comedy central. his humor is very crash and crude and f'in hilarious. :) (unless you're on the blue collar comedy tour..then you might not think he's so funny) it was all great! and we got to hang out with his parents a lot and eat good food and catch up with his sister who just got back from italy. all in all a very good weekend and a great way to end a somewhat insane year! sorry that i didn't win the texas lottery and couldn't take all of you out on the town to say thanks for helping me out this year. i appreciate all my friends so much. those of you who live in texas will get some beers from me next time we go to northgate (which should be soon! this weekend!!). those of you who don't live in texas, um...i love you guys. :) come visit and i'll buy you beers. ;) seriously though, thanks to everyone.

the other good news is that my brother and sister-in-law have officially brought my new nephew to the U.S. from Russia and they are all happy and healthy and catching up on sleep! this adoption process has been a long one and we all can't wait to meet luke. :) (he's the cutest baby ever!)



goofy looking kate and dave attell.  

"it's poop again"

i'm in my office in the academic building as i type this. not too long ago i was meeting with a student and changing his major to sociology. i could hear someone in the hallway outside walking around and figured they were either waiting to talk to me next or waiting for him to finish up with me so they could leave together. well, i was wrong about that.

the student leaves, happy to be switched over. i goof around on the internet checking email and to see if i won the texas lottery yet. and then a smell creeps into my office from the hallway. it smells like someone has ripped all kinds of ass. i figure it will dissipate, but it keeps lingering.

then another student pops in and says "have you been out in the hallway?" "no, i explain." and then she informs me that "there's a huge turd out here." "you're kidding, right?" i say. "no," she explains..."it's on the floor...and ew...on the wall too." reluctantly, i peek out the door and there is, in fact, a hefty poop next to one of the chairs at the end of the hall, a bit on the floor, and some smeared on the wall. "how is this possible?" i ask no one, though i'm talking out loud.

so, someone took a dump in the hallway outside (not right outside, but near) my office. it brought me back to my residence hall days (especially at marquette), where it was not uncommon to find or hear about finding bodily functions in the hall, elevator, floor, whatever. one guy in my building at marquette drunkly mistook the elevator for a urinal one night. but this is a academic building...i mean, it's called the academic building for god's sake..not the shit factory building.

i had the joy of calling the main office to inform them that there is poop up here. "poop?" "yes, poop." i shut the door and luckily can't smell it as much, but i did almost gag last time i went out in the hall way to put a yellow caution sign (you know, the wet floor ones) over the poop on the floor.

here's hoping the maintenance guys get here sometime soon. (what a thankless job that is. cleaning up some jerkoffs excrement! there's no way they get paid enough to do that!) it's icky bad and a bit incomprehisble. "i didn't do well on my final so i'm going to go take a shit on a chair?" it is friday the 13th i guess, but damn that's gross!

mantra

one of my former RAs had part of this quote as her away message the other day. i liked it a lot and thought i'd share. seems like something i need to remember more.

"i want to beg you, as much as i can, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. and the point is, to live everything. live the questions now. perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. perhaps you do carry within yourself the possibility of shaping and forming as a particularly happy and pure way of living; train yourself to it-but take whatever comes with great trust, and if only it comes out of your own will, out of some need of your inmost being, take it upon yourself and hate nothing." -rainer maria rilke

three good customer service plugs

despite my recent crabbiness i want to give props to three companies that i've received good customer service from.

first up is gomez shoe repair. back in februrary i broke one of those little hook thingys on my favorite hiking shoes that you use to keep the laces in place. (too much drinky drink that night) and gomez shoe repair (by 32 degrees or whatever) fixed it for the bargain price of $5.00!

second is redenvelope.com. they have really cool products and shipped something for me really fast and even responded quickly when i had a question.

finally, sprint actually fixed my phone this afternoon after i broke it a little last night. (whoops!) i waited for a few minutes while they took it into the back room and before i knew it, it was back in shape. and it cost nothing. :)

thanks for all the helpfulness.

love/hate relationship

so, i'm a bit behind the times (*stop snickering mike*) and only recently got into sex and the city i watched the first two seasons on dvd and catch random, edited episodes on tbs when i have time. i'm even looking forward to renting or buying more seasons so i can watch them this summer. however, as intrigued as i am by this show, it's also very frustrating sometimes. :) there are times when i think the writers for that show were stalking me to get ideas for the next episode. there are other times when it's hard to sympathize with carrie for being alone...because she's still dressed to the nines and living in paris for god's sake...and in the end, gets the guy!

then there are quotes like the following, that just make me smile, because i know i've said things like that before to my other single friends. "Carrie: Think about it. If you are single, after graduation there isn't one occasion where people celebrate you ... Hallmark doesn't make a "congratulations, you didn't marry the wrong guy" card. And where's the flatware for going on vacation alone?" one of my highschool friends that i'm still in touch with made a list of our little circle of people and crossed off everyone who was married, leaving only four of us still single. it was after reading that that i wanted to know where the list was for people who are getting a Ph.D. or living outside of iowa or whatever. :) i'm ready for a "you passed your dissertation defense" shower. (okay, i'll be ready for it when i pass...just sayin'!)

so, that's my love/hate relationship with
sex and the city. it's a very insightful, funny, and just fun show...i love watching it, even when it drives me nuts.

a mystery is suddenly more mysterious

so might have told some of you about my ancenstry before. i'm german, more german, more german, an eighth british, and an eighth mystery. the family story about the mystery was always that my grandfather's mother was an orphan and was on on something called an orphan train. this was always a unique little tidbit about the parks family. however, when i was home last time, my dad told me that the orphan train part of our history was actually fiction. evidentally someone in the family made that up because there was some sort of shame associated with her heritage. BUT, that's all we know about the truth of her background. we know that she lived with a few families, but still don't know what were ethnic ancestry is. in all actuality it doesn't matter too much. the mystery is still just that...a mystery. but i think it's even more interesting now. what's the big cover up?

in other news, i finished my last paper for the semester. i think it was decently done...but mostly it's done. i have one more semester of classes left...and then i'll be ABD if i pass prelims. (abd=all but dissertation by the way. i get asked that sometimes so i thought i'd clarify.) not sure what will happen next, but i'm looking forward to an opportunity to relax a bit this summer. w00t!

don't tell my heart...my achy breaky heart :)

no, this message is not a tribute to the king of all mullets, billy ray cyrus. :) i just couldn't do that to my reading public and i don't want to sacrifice the slim integrity that my blog has. (i said slim...i know it doesn't have much.)

so lately, my heart has been very palpitaty. i've had problems with it since 7th grade. i remember it vividly. we were running some kind of insane drill at basketball practice, which was appropriate called suicides or something (crazy sadistic gym teachers....her name was Ms. Hasenwinkle...she was mean) and my heart switched from beating fast because i was exercise to going mock 11. then i started to black out and figured i should stop running. :) that scenario has been going on randomly (not regulary) since then. i don't even want to speculate how many years that's been because it will just prove once again that i'm old. (fine...i would have been 12 or 13 in 7th grade...so freakin 17 years..). well, lately it has felt like it's on the verge of an episode pretty constantly so i went to the doctor and found out that part of what might cause it is anxiety. time for kate to cut back on stress and start doing yoga again. :) the cutting back on stress part may be difficult right now since i have two papers to finish in the next week. but if you know of other stress relieving activities, i'm all ears. (this is the part where drew makes some remark involving sex...i'm predicting it.)

anywho, i get drugs now and hopefully they will start working and i'm really looking forward to some chill time this summer. it's kind of ironic if any of you read mike's blog recently. he wrote about being really laid back and apparently i have the opposite situation going on. :) not that that makes me more decisive though. just achy breaky evidently.

okay, time to write.