one week down

i've finished my first week of teaching as a real instructor (not quite a professor yet...) so far, so good. the students are very nice, though started out a bit quiet. but towards the end of the week they were opening up more. i had a fun "i just blew their minds" moment today in intro. :) that's one of those great teacher moments when you know that you've opened up the students to something new. so the week ended on a high note. let's hope the momentum keeps up....especially because i have a serious deadline looming.

in about two weeks, i have to have a copy of the dissertation sent off to my committee chair. i have to say that i'm not sure that it's going to happen. but, crazier things have happened. i've managed to sort through all the data twice and it's now at the point where i just need to write about it. for some reason that's easier said than done. BUT, i have no choice. i gotta do it and do it quick. here's hoping everything i had before is good enough for the committee and the defense that's coming up in october. yeah...it's safe to say that i'm getting nervous, while being so, so ready to get this part over with.

cross your fingers kids that i can pull this off.

moving beyond katie

for a lot of my life, i was known as katie, a fact that mike loves to revisit whenever he's trying to get me fired up. then, sometime in college, i became kate. however, not everyone in my life got the memo about that. my family, of course, is allowed to call me katie, and i'll even cut my high school friends some slack. beyond that though, it's just plain weird when i'm called something other than kate. i bring this up because today as i was going to convocation with my fellow faculty members to welcome the new students, a professor from my glory days called me katie. it's possible that he missed the memo my junior year that i had self-imposed a different moniker, but it made me wonder if he still saw me as i used to be.

that's been on my mind a lot this week as i re-enter this college. last time i was here, i had just graduated and was scared to leave the place that had been like home for four years. i was, i'm sure, worried about what the future held once i moved beyond this place. and now, i'm back in a completely new role. as i sat in my master's degree garb (cap, gown, fancy hood, the whole deal) during convocation, i realized that i'm not katie anymore. but instead, i'm kate...new faculty member, grown-up, adult, professor (well almost.) it's a little weird, but every exciting at the same time. and i hope this community will accept me as this new person. i know, i'm not completely different than when i was an undergrad, but much has changed at the same time. i hope there will be space for who i have become in the last 9 years (the new kate) and for what i will become in my time here. i've moved beyond katie. :) if that makes any kind of sense.

"you must be an iowan if...you drink 'pop'...

my good friend monica sent me a forward today to commemorate my move back to the hawkeye state. it was a collection of wisdom about how you know you're an iowan, many of which were quite funny. i know i'm an iowan because mike and i drove about 1300 miles to move me here. all in all, the move was the most seamless one that i've ever encountered. i was packed by the time my friends (to whom i am very grateful) arrived to move my stuff into the truck. the truck i got was brand new, which never happens. everything fit, everyone was fed enough pizza and beer, and i had enough time to clean my apartment for my inspection (thanks kirk.) mike and i managed to get to OK City the first night which was our goal and then had a long haul the next day. once we got to town we checked out the apartment with dennis and then hit the wal-mart to get an air mattress and then headed to fat tuesday's (a favorite hang out of the duhawk crowd). mike had his first ever old style, which he seemed to enjoy and probably cost like a dollar or something. the move in the next day also went well and i got a lot of stuff unpacked. there is still random crap all over the place, but the essentials are just about all done. mike had to leave on monday night which sucked, but i'm glad he was able to stay a few days and hang out with me. :) this place seems really empty without his company. but i will say that i do like my apartment. it is really big, especially compared to where i was living, and in some ways is already starting to feel a bit like home. it will be nice to have everything put away, but that might take some time as i'm in full swing with the dissertation and getting ready for classes which start on the 27th. mike has vowed that he won't come visit until i get my first draft done, so that's a lot of motivation to crank it out. :)

i figured that moving back to iowa would be difficult in some ways. leaving behind the life in ABQ was/is not easy and it's especially hard to be so far away from the boy. at the same time, it's nice to be closer to friends (who better friggin' visit) and my family (who i already get to see this weekend.) it's nice to be starting my first job at a familiar place, though i do feel a bit of pressure that i will need to kick even more butts since i'm their former student. luckily it will keep me way busy.

i could continue to ramble on but instead i'm going to share a few things about living in iowa that i forgot about. that's what i get for being gone for like 9 years and only back in the winter usually.

-we do drink pop. and when you buy cans or bottles of it, you have to pay a deposit and then return the cans to get your money back. it's wacky.
-critters around here are furry and not lizards. didn't see a lot of furry creatures in TX and NM. but in iowa, i have already met a furry creature that lives under my back porch sometimes. i have named him chewbaca.
-there are bugs. NM spoiled me.
-sweet corn here is way better than the sweet corn you get anywhere else. come over and i'll make you some.
-people are nice. they say hi to you when you're just walking into the grocery store and are really helpful when coming to help you get your internet set up.
-parts of iowa are really smelly thanks to pig farms. mike's comment was "iowa smells like ass....i want to fart to cover up the smell." luckily it's not all over the place.
-stuff closes on sunday, like most of downtown dubuque.

i'm sure there will be more to add to the list, like the quirkiness of my old house, but for now i should probably go to bed.

over and out!