Clown Car

184

I spent today cramming myself and four others into a Dodge Neon. Three adults (one pregnant) and two children of car seat age. I got the back with my feet on the hump between said car seats. Comfy. We only did the in/out part about 6 times. By the end, we were pretty good at it.

I think I became less scary to the kids throughout the day; I got a sloppy kiss from Gracie and a g'night high-five from Ezra. We played rocket ship, sang songs, did some hair (very curly baby hair), played with one of the coolest marble toys I've ever seen, and drooled over some shoes (Grace: literally, me: figuratively).

I'm on my second day with no work. I've decided to head back to reality a day early. It seems the right thing to do.

Miscounting

I think I'm at 186.

Today's post goes to a memory, actually several memories...only one I think I'll share...

First, a memory of getting ready for the finale of the Lawrence County 4-H fashion review in 1996. This was my last year in 4-H and the year I was supposed to "win it all". Whatever. I had made two outfits: a tailored coat and a formal dress (a number made from a velvet floral pattern with see through stuff between and a red shiny velvet train). When it came time for announcing the winner, I put on the dress. Mom came in and told me to put on the coat. I argued with her that I needed to wear the dress because the dress was what was going to win. She insisted that I wear the coat.

I understand now how this all happened, but she was right that I needed to be wearing the coat because I had won grand champion for construction but "only" reserve-grand in modeling for the dress. I was able to take both garments to the state level where the coat got special mention and the dress, well, didn't. I did well with the dress (top 15), but two other girls in the top 15 had used the same pattern and it just wasn't as special.

Why is it that I never took the time to listen to Mom and believe that she somehow knew what was going on? I look today at how the world works and realize that the important people are informed one way or another about what's going to happen so they can facilitate what needs to happen. Sometimes it's hard to identify when something more than the obvious is going on.

189

After 11 hours of fairly solid sleep, I managed to get out and be social some this afternoon. I still need to finish my presentation, but it's fairly close.

The big adventure for today involved a three-ish mile hike up a mountain. It was fairly easy terrain but had a decent slope.

I had plans to write several things, but now I can't remember them and my eyes are having problems staying open.

So, yeah, sleep.

Travel

190

Conference is this week. I traveled today and I'm coming onto 24 hours of being awake with several more to go...like maybe another 12. I'm sooo happy that I brought a heavier jacket. It's actually fall here. and cold.

Anyway, Thursday is the big day for my talk. It can't come soon enough. Just wanna get it over with.

Negatron

194

Today I buckled down on some of the wording in the paper that's due on Friday. I think it's coming together slowly, but surely.

My theme for today:

Image from avid

Anxious Much?

One hundred and ninety five days left.

There's a conference next week in Austria and I'm starting to get anxious about my travels. The last time I went overseas, I didn't have a chance to get anxious...everything just happened so quickly. Suddenly, sometime during the 14 hour flight, it hit me that I was going to Japan. Freaked me out. I'm experiencing that a bit early with Austria.

Now that the anxiety is getting established, there's the issue of getting everything done on schedule for the conference. The paper and presentation are shaping up but I'm struggling with the punchline. A discussion with one of my profs today help significantly, but there's still the issue of getting that translated to slides, print, and words and staying consistent.

Not that it's related, but this week is New York's Fashion Week. I picture the attendees to be dressed similarly to those at the Halloween in West Hollywood. The goal, however lofty, is to be noticed. Here's a fantastic account of Jezebel's Sadie doing just that by carrying a large doll dressed like her. Enjoy.

196

This afternoon is the dry run for my presentation at a conference next week. I've been working all weekend on additional data to make my story a little more compelling, but I'm not sure what the data are telling me.

While I was soaking in the information and meditating on what the data mean, I managed a 5.6 mile run at Percy Warner, a trip to McKay, and a trip to the Frist to see "The Golden Age of Couture" and the Chihuly exhibit. The couture exhibit was extremely overcrowded so I couldn't spend the time fawning over the garments, but it was definitely worth fighting the crowds.

In the gift store, there was a children's activity book by Chihuly that had some really cool activities. I might have done the cover art a little differently though.

198

Yesterday, I used The Oatmeal as a grammatical reference; it's funny and helpful. I also needed it for another reference, but didn't have the energy to search the site, i.e., I was a lazy pants.

I was up until after midnight writing an article for which I was given the guidelines: write a two page article. I got no topic, no font size, no margin requirements. Just two pages with images. It took much longer than it should have.

I did take time out to head to a milonga.

Today: working on the paper and presentation that I need to have in good shape by Monday.

Also: potentially hanging out at the Saucer (depending on progress on the above) and definitely heading to wedding party fun tonight.

One Nine Nine

The morning was actually a little chilly, especially with the rain. Fortunately, the rain didn't start until after I dragged myself out of bed for a run at Percy. The Nashville Half-Marathon is in mid-November and I'm trying to decide if I'm crazy enough to use that as motivation for my training. Meh.

Yesterday was a roller-coaster that started out with a discussion with my advisor that concluded with, "if this doesn't work, we'll need to completely revamp the project." Those are words that will send a chill down any grad student's spine.

Later, I got word that everything should be okay. I'm still not completely convinced that it's okay yet, but feeling better.

Photo by thewamphyri

Two Hundred Days

There are two hundred days until I have to turn in my dissertation to walk in May. I don't really need more things to do, but I am going to try to document progress as I go.

To start out, here's the Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D. by Matt Might.

Todays fun involves programming and working on two papers and a presentation. The presentation will probably be put on the back burner until the weekend, but I need a draft of the first paper and a final version of the other sometime tomorrow.