i'm trying out a new blog site

sociologyofkate.weebly.com

check it out and let me know what you think.  :)

"maybe i should friend him on facebook?"

a year ago today i was sending my awesome friend carrie emails about how cool this new guy todd was after hanging out with him unexpectedly at trivia.  even though i had been on campus for 12 hours and looked like crap, i must have made a good impression, since he accepted my friend request and even responded to the email i sent him on my way to NYC to hang out with shelley.  before i knew it, we were planning our first date (october 22nd) and sharing witty banter via facebook email.  i'm not sure if either of us would have predicted that less than a year later we'd be sharing a beautiful apartment with two adorable kitties.  what i did know was that i thought todd was extremely funny, handsome, and intelligent and someone i wanted to spend more time with.  and i had this really good feeling about the potential relationship we could have.  :)

todd said something this  past weekend about how it's been a while since he's felt like everything in his life was working out.  i definitely knew what he meant.  it seems like in the past either my relationships were good and my career was insane or my career was good and my relationships were insane.  it's amazing to finally have both things being great at the same time.  sure, there are things i would change about my job if i could, but overall i'm very fortunate to be doing what i love.  and life with todd is really a dream come true.  i know that's corny and he might mock me a little for that level of cheesiness, but every day is better than the last.  there are so many things that i love about him and about our relationship together.  i'm so glad that he decided to come to trivia a year ago and that i decided to take a small step forward by making him my friend on the FB.  so many wonderful things have happened in the last year.  and i know that we have so much more good stuff to come.

i love you todd!

cha...cha...cha...cha...cha...changes!

much has changed since last i wrote.  after a very busy start to the school year, i'm happy to share that we are officially moved in and settled into the new apartment.  we suckered some friends into helping us schlep almost everything over to the new place the weekend before my contract started.  then i worked my hiney off to get my old apartment cleaned and things unpacked in our new home.  a week after we moved in, we decided to adopt two adorable kittens.  i have taken a bunch of pictures of them already, which you can peruse here if you need some virtual kitty therapy.  (it turns out hanging out with kittens for an hour is quite stress-relieving).  they are so sweet and fun and sometimes mischievous.  i think we were both surprised by how fast we became attached to them.  and they went from not liking each other to tolerating each other to playing-sleeping-licking-wrestling-meowing with each other very quickly.

all in all, these changes have been really awesome.  that's not to say that there hasn't been some stress at times.  after living basically on my own, with only brief periods of having roommates since i graduated from college, it is an adjustment to get used to sharing chores and expenses and even just free time.  but, it's a good adjustment that i wouldn't trade for the world.  it was weird moving out of my old apartment after having been there the longest amount of time in the last 10 years or so.  but joy i have living in this awesome place with todd is difficult to fully articulate.  there are moments when i'm so happy i get tears in my eyes.  like on our second night in the apartment when he was playing his guitar and singing songs.  or today when we sat on the couch with our sweet kitties, watching a movie, and drinking coffee.  life is good.  so very good.  :)

best move yet

those of you who have known me for a while have probably had the distinct pleasure of helping me move.  in fact, many of you probably have since i've moved something like 17 times since i graduated from college.  many of those were within the same town, but regardless, that's a lot of packing tape and boxes and heavy lifting.  if you feel like you've missed out on moving fun, fear not.  i'm moving again...and i couldn't be more excited!

todd and i made a decision a few months ago to live together.  we looked for apartments that were in an area of town that we like, allows cats, and that had at least 2 bedrooms.  happily, we fell in love with the second place we looked at.  it's owned by a friend of mine, who lives on the 3rd floor of the building (and his dad lives on the 1st floor.)  weirdly our good friends dave and carrie actually lived in the first floor of this house when they moved to dubuque.  it's an awesome place and i'm really looking forward to sharing it with todd.
this will be a first for me and though i'm a little nervous, mostly i'm so happy.  though the process of moving is stressful, i know that this is going to be really fantastic and there's so much i'm looking forward to.  i can't wait to get our kitties, to have a bigger kitchen, to be in walking distance of work (that doesn't involve walking up a giant hill), and mostly to getting to share my life with todd.

here's some pictures of the new place.  we move in starting on august 16th!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12657973@N06/sets/72157624557727944/detail/

time flies when you're having fun

unbelievably we have two weeks of classes left before finals start.  i can't believe how busy my schedule has been lately.  luckily there has been a whole bunch of fun crammed in between class prep, grading, and meetings. i spent this past weekend in cleveland meeting todd's family.  it was a great weekend!  cleveland has way more going on than i would have expected and the schmidt family is just wonderful.  :)  we went there to see todd's sister allison give a recital and i was totally wowed by her excellence on the piano.  the weekend was full of good food, good beer, baseball (which was also good), and fantastic music!  the 9ish hour car trip was also pretty fun..mostly.  :)

life has been busy lately.  i've been working on some paid research projects, catching up on grading, and preparing for the end of the semester.  hopefully this week will be as productive (but less stressful) than last week was.  i'm really looking forward to spending some time with my mom on saturday and sunday for mother's day.

i'm going to blame a cumulative lack of sleep for this post.  probably not too exciting, huh?  but in short...i'll probably be moving to a new house or apartment in the next few months.  my trivia team won a free trip to vegas (well...free rooms anyway).  and i couldn't be happier with how life is going!  :)  ankle deep in love as tom petty says.

hope you are all well my friends!

Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more. --Erica Jong

this is a fantastic quote....and i find myself believing that it speaks a lot of truth.  that's probably especially easy to say today, when i'm feeling very happy and nostalgic thinking about the last 6 months.  half a year ago, todd and i went on our first date.  i remember feeling really nervous and super excited.  i bought a new outfit.  i was pacing around my apartment and i think talking to a few of you online.  i was a bundle of nerves.  i think i remained in that state for our first few dates actually.  :)  now, six months later, i'm very much in love and so happy that i get to share my life with someone so fantastic.  it feels like i've known him for much longer than six months...and it also seems like the time has flown by.   it's crazy how time works like that sometimes.

so, again i find myself on the couch very excited for todd to pick me up to go out for sushi (though not nervous.) i love you, todd.  thanks for all that you bring to my life...happiness, laughter, joy, interesting movie/music knowledge, hilarity...and love.  it sure is all that it's cracked up to be.

stymied by a title

i've been meaning to blog for a few weeks now but i could not think of a creative title.  i've consulted my brains, quotations online, and song lyrics by my favorite artists but came up short in all cases.  so i figured i should just get over it and blog.  title be damned!

this semester has been going really well.  classes haven't been too demanding so far.  i have been busy with third year review (which is over...just waiting on feedback) and i got a contract for next year, so i'm happy about that.  i've been wanting to get some scholarship done, but it still hasn't really happened yet.  there have been a number of other things work related that have popped up (like the opportunity to present at a White Privilege Summit this week) which have eaten up some of my time.  getting the dissertation published is on the top of my list right now once i get some to work on it.

things with todd are AWESOME.  we've been together for a little over five months and i'm so very happy.  i still find myself feeling amazed at how compatible we are.  i feel really lucky and blessed to have him in my life.  i could say more but suddenly my brains have stopped functioning correctly.  i'll blame all the love.  :)