totally cute!

so i hung out with my brother and his family last weekend and took a bunch of pictures. my niece and nephew are so dang cute that it's just hard to resist capturing as many moments as possible. :)
in the soccer pics, my nephew luke is the one with the glasses. (go #35!) he did a great job.

http://fotosbykate.sexynerd.org/main.php?g2_itemId=3499

i forgot to put a title before...and now i still don't have one

unbelievably it is almost the end of september, which means that this semester is flying by! overall, that's been a great thing. i've been busy with school stuff, but not to the point of insanity and have been spending more time with friends here. i spent this past weekend in st. louis catching up with my brother and his family which was really fun. i have a lot coming up in the next few weeks as well, which gives me a lot to look forward to. so, my optimism continues on unscathed so far this year. :)

that being said, i still have a bunch of work to get done in the next few months. the research project i've been wanting to get off the ground has been delayed. waiting on IRB approval and hopefully some funding for a really cool online survey program. haven't made much progress on publishing the dissertation either. :( my prep for race and ethnicity has been harder than expected so i've been cheating and working on that during designated research time. hopefully i can get things under control in the next few weeks and will actually work on some scholarship.

my january term course is also looming a little larger. have to get a lot of work done on that soon!! i think i'm going to be putting together a reader for the students and need to firm up the plans in NOLA. so, cross your fingers that i can get everything done that i need to get done!

apparently i don't have anything profound to share today. just a quick update to say that all continues to be good. :D woo!

"and that's the way this wheel keeps working now..."

so apparently using lyrics as blog title's is my trend. that's probably no surprise though to the regular readers. this tidbit comes from the song wheel by john mayer. like many of his songs, there are parts of it that resonate with me. ultimately it's about life changing and not really knowing how it will turn out (at least that's my interpretation.) as previous posts have indicated, my life has changed a lot in the last 4 months in ways that i wouldn't have anticipated. i spent a lot of the summer kind of mourning those changes. and avoiding the reality of them. and fighting them. and though i needed to do a few of those things, ultimately i know that i can't undo them or go back in time and do anything differently. that isn't always easy to grapple with, but at the same time, i finally feel okay with that. more than okay actually. i really feel open to whatever it is that is going to happen.

if you had asked me in june if i would feel excited by the not-knowing i would have probably told you that you were a crazy asshole. but now, i'm just trying to be present to the present. i know that might sound new-agey or something, but i'm a planner by nature. so i struggle at times to just be. to just take in what's going on right now without thinking about the future. for whatever reason, i feel like my planny nature is taking a backseat. i'm still thinking about what's to come...applying for some jobs, updating and improving the vita, and considering options. but in my consideration, really for the first time in a way, i'm realizing that staying where i'm at is a viable option. or at least it could be. i think i got so used to the idea that was leaving here, that i wasn't really paying attention to some of the great things about staying. and there are some really great things.

so, if anyone has some words of wisdom on how i can figure these things out, i would love to hear it. in the meantime, i'm going to focus on making my classes as great as possible, completing some useful research, and spending quality time with the fantastic friends. (and of course, hang out with my family too...and hopefully soon!)

for the first time in a while, i'm not just being rhetorically optimistic. i feel it. and i'm so excited about what's going on in the here and the now. and i truly believe that because i'm good person that the last line of wheel also applies to me.

"i believe...that my life's gonna see, the love i give return to me.

i believe!"

:)

no crap...

Making a commitment now can be serious business; once you decide, you won't be able to easily change your mind. Whether you are considering moving to another city, changing jobs or switching schools, it's crucial to take your time and think through all the pros and cons before choosing what to do next.

By Rick Levine

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

thanks for nothing! :)