If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm incredibly superstitious. I never thought of myself this way until I taught a German course that centered around a book and movie called Im Juli. The story is full of superstitions and it became a reoccuring conversational theme in the course. I taught the course 6 times and it didn't take long to realize that I was much more willing to believe superstitions than my students. My feeling is that it can't hurt to try to work things into my favor with good luck charms and I can't afford any bad luck, despite the voodoo doll on our fridge that Hubby's aunt gave us on Easter.
And what does this have to do with bubble bath? Let me explain. I had a very miserable year in 2009. I dropped out of graduate school, turned down a fellowship, called off my wedding to Hubby with 4 days to go, taught middle school and managed to become the 6th grade wing's scape goat. (I wouldn't be surprised if some of those teachers have voodoo dolls in my honor) Although the year was enough to show me that I really did want to be an academic and not a German teacher, I was very unhappy. Thankfully, I had good friends by my side that year who tolerated my poor spirits and hung out with me despite my perpetual bad mood. One of those friends gave me her bottle of lucky bubble bath made with four leaf clovers. I used the bubble bath until my department chair at the university reinstated my funding and welcomed me back into the department with open arms. It seems that the bubble bath also helped my relationship with Hubby, since we got married after all. With all of this good fortune, I have been hoarding the last drops of bubble bath for special intentions. I started using it again for said special intentions this month and exausted it last night.
Lo and behold, I received an e-mail this morning from the library sub committee that I am a finalist for the library doctoral fellowship! Woohoo!!! Apparently, those librarians either haven't read my blog or think my criticism of the library shows my dedication to research in the library. Their judgement must be clouded by the four leaf clover bubbles wafting out of my bath tub. The e-mail informed me that I have been selected for an interview with the sub committee which will take place on May 7th. There are 9 interview time slots open, which means that I still have to beat out 7 other students to receive the award (and no, I will not start using the voodoo doll now).
To prepare for my interview, I have started an intense background investigation of the award. So far, I have learned that two students receive the award each year. The former award recipients come from all sorts of doctoral programs and have a wide range of publications. Each year the number of applications for the award increase. In 2009 there were 42 applicants, 54 in 2010 and 74 in 2011. I figure I beat out at least 50 other highly qualified dissertators to make it this far, but now I have to plot my next moves carefully. I think Geraldine stands out because her database is made up of resources from the library: electronic documents, microfilms, grammars and dictionaries that no one else ever checked out of the library, journals, interlibrary loan materials, etc. I've traveled to other libraries to expand Geraldine's database, and I have a competitive CV. Now I just need to pull out the extra Kelsie charm to prove to the sub committee that I am the best candidate for their $5,000 award-- without the help of anymore magic bubble bath.
So, what else has helped me win awards? Here are a few highlights. In high school I made it to the national automotive competition. I had to beat my best friend at the state level. We were neck in neck all through the regional competitions. She received comments from the judges that she sparkled. When my auto shop teacher read the comments, he scoled me and asked me why I didn't smarkle (yes, smarkle, he said it wrong). I learned to smarkle before the state competition and will work on my smarkling skills this week as I prepare for my interview. My sophomore year of college I won a place on the all-state academic team. The monetary amount of the award wasn't much, but I received a lot of publicity and the college president said "Hello Kelsie" every time he saw me on campus. Lesson learned: it pays to be likeable. Maybe I should send anonymous cookies to the sub committee members. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out who they are yet or I would sit in on their classes this week to figure out their preferences. My senior year of college I won the department foreign language award. Besides my obvious language skills, I attribute this to being the only student who never skipped class. Again, it pays to suck up, but that won't work for me this time. Last year I received a Foreign Language Areas Studies fellowship, which allowed me to study a Turkic language. I attribute this award to knowing the right people at the right time. Again, this won't help me with the library award.
My scholarly activities and explanation of how the library plays a role in Geraldine's creation helped me get this far. Now I need to use my familiarity with the library and patron record to show that I am not only the best qualified applicant but that I also use the library better than any other dissertator. Good thing I needed to enter all of my citations into a bibliographic computer program this week. What better way that than to review how I've used the library this semester? And, if that's not enough, maybe I'll just bring my bunny with me to the interview. If four lucky rabbit feet don't do the trick, maybe the cute bunny will win me some extra points....
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
On Organizing a Prospectus Defense
I finished my prospectus (dissertation proposal) last week. Yay! The text includes over 30 single spaced pages of excitement. For all you non-doctoral readers out there, a prospectus is a blueprint of the dissertation. I have a chapter on what research questions Geraldine will answer, a chapter on why anyone would be interested in Geraldine in the first place and how she relates to other studies, a chapter on how I collected data to write Geraldine and a chapter on what each chapter of Geraldine will look like. There is also a timeline, an 8-paged bibliography of relavant work, and about 50 charts that will appear in Geraldine's appendix.
Surprisingly, it was relatively painless to write the prospectus. Dumbeldore wrote to me to inform me that her preliminary thoughts about my prospectus is that it is very impressive. She will have more comments in the weeks to come and probably a lot of critical questions. No feedback from Indiana, but I know he's crazy busy.
Now on to the difficult part: getting 4 professors to agree on a date and time to meet so that I can defend said prospectus. The semester officially ends on Sunday, May 20th. I was hoping to be able to defend by May 17th, but it seems that this might not be the case. I thought I only needed 3 professors on my defense committee, but as Dumbeldore is retired, I need a 4th person to serve as a critical reviewer or warm body. This person will preferably also stick around for a year for when I defend Geraldine to become Dr. Kelsie next spring (God willing). This is a difficult task as two of the professors are on dissertation defense commitees and MA defense commitees in the next two weeks. Indiana has a group coming in from Thailand, Dumbeldore has a book publishing deadline this month, and my third member has dates that don't match up with the others' free days. And my 4th member-to-be is serving jury duty. My previous 4th member is retiring and won't be sticking around/isn't interested in helping me and my other hopeful commitee member is also retiring. There is only one other professor in the department that I took a class with, but he is on everyone else's commitee, is on sabatical, and would not make a good person to be on my commitee because he has no interest in my topic. *ugh* I hope the 4th-member-to-be agrees and has a flexible schedule.
I think I have to give up my outlandish roadtrip ideas to the southwest to watch a solar eclipse on May 20th. Indiana asked me why May 18th would be a bad day to meet. First I told him that as a native of the northwest, I don't associate good things with May 18th (this is a Mt. St. Helens eruption reference). When he rejected this superstition, I admitted to wanting to see a solar eclipse because I am an astro-physicist in my alterego but stated that defending my prospectus is more important. He laughed at that and told me that defending my prospectus should be more exciting than a solar eclipse, not just more important. Apparently Indiana has never seen a solar eclipse or he would understand my temptation to leave town. I ended the conversation saying that I didn't want to drive through the states between here and the southwest anyways.
Conclusions? Now I get to wait some more.
Surprisingly, it was relatively painless to write the prospectus. Dumbeldore wrote to me to inform me that her preliminary thoughts about my prospectus is that it is very impressive. She will have more comments in the weeks to come and probably a lot of critical questions. No feedback from Indiana, but I know he's crazy busy.
Now on to the difficult part: getting 4 professors to agree on a date and time to meet so that I can defend said prospectus. The semester officially ends on Sunday, May 20th. I was hoping to be able to defend by May 17th, but it seems that this might not be the case. I thought I only needed 3 professors on my defense committee, but as Dumbeldore is retired, I need a 4th person to serve as a critical reviewer or warm body. This person will preferably also stick around for a year for when I defend Geraldine to become Dr. Kelsie next spring (God willing). This is a difficult task as two of the professors are on dissertation defense commitees and MA defense commitees in the next two weeks. Indiana has a group coming in from Thailand, Dumbeldore has a book publishing deadline this month, and my third member has dates that don't match up with the others' free days. And my 4th member-to-be is serving jury duty. My previous 4th member is retiring and won't be sticking around/isn't interested in helping me and my other hopeful commitee member is also retiring. There is only one other professor in the department that I took a class with, but he is on everyone else's commitee, is on sabatical, and would not make a good person to be on my commitee because he has no interest in my topic. *ugh* I hope the 4th-member-to-be agrees and has a flexible schedule.
I think I have to give up my outlandish roadtrip ideas to the southwest to watch a solar eclipse on May 20th. Indiana asked me why May 18th would be a bad day to meet. First I told him that as a native of the northwest, I don't associate good things with May 18th (this is a Mt. St. Helens eruption reference). When he rejected this superstition, I admitted to wanting to see a solar eclipse because I am an astro-physicist in my alterego but stated that defending my prospectus is more important. He laughed at that and told me that defending my prospectus should be more exciting than a solar eclipse, not just more important. Apparently Indiana has never seen a solar eclipse or he would understand my temptation to leave town. I ended the conversation saying that I didn't want to drive through the states between here and the southwest anyways.
Conclusions? Now I get to wait some more.
On Funding Woes
I have a TAship for next year. Yay! No other funding attempts have worked in my favor this year.
Hubby's application for a doctoral program was rejected. This means no more schooling for him for a while, no job, and no more deferment for student loan payments. Hubby's application to study in Berlin this summer was also denied. This means Hubby is sad, but surprisingly still optimistic.
I haven't really heard back about my funding applications. I applied for more Central Asian language training and received no feedback until today. The e-mail is different than last year's. I have been accepted to study, but no news about funding. The e-mail simply states "funding decisions will be made within the month." What does that mean??? I think it means the university will waive my tuition but not give me $2,500 as hoped for. What does that mean? I think I'm spending the summer on my porch writing Geraldine, not working on my proficiency in a Central Asian langauge.... but I'm not sure yet. Indiana wasn't very happy when I told him that I had reapplied for funding. In fact, if I register for classes, I think he'll drop me as a student. Nevertheless, I feel torn. I want to improve my proficiency, but I am worried about not having enough time for Geraldine. Plus, without a large cost of living stipend, I can't afford to drive to the other state university every day as I had planned to when I applied for funding back in January. *sigh* Decisions, decisions.
Still no news about the library fellowship or anything else I've been waiting to hear about. Some days it's easy to wait, others I think everything is doomed and I'm going to have to live off of my savings, and others I think I'm in for more than I baragained for. The only things that comforts me is knowing that 1) I will make it through this regardless of waiting patiently or impatiently and 2) I will become a doctor at some point.
Until then, I will continue to wait and wonder.
Hubby's application for a doctoral program was rejected. This means no more schooling for him for a while, no job, and no more deferment for student loan payments. Hubby's application to study in Berlin this summer was also denied. This means Hubby is sad, but surprisingly still optimistic.
I haven't really heard back about my funding applications. I applied for more Central Asian language training and received no feedback until today. The e-mail is different than last year's. I have been accepted to study, but no news about funding. The e-mail simply states "funding decisions will be made within the month." What does that mean??? I think it means the university will waive my tuition but not give me $2,500 as hoped for. What does that mean? I think I'm spending the summer on my porch writing Geraldine, not working on my proficiency in a Central Asian langauge.... but I'm not sure yet. Indiana wasn't very happy when I told him that I had reapplied for funding. In fact, if I register for classes, I think he'll drop me as a student. Nevertheless, I feel torn. I want to improve my proficiency, but I am worried about not having enough time for Geraldine. Plus, without a large cost of living stipend, I can't afford to drive to the other state university every day as I had planned to when I applied for funding back in January. *sigh* Decisions, decisions.
Still no news about the library fellowship or anything else I've been waiting to hear about. Some days it's easy to wait, others I think everything is doomed and I'm going to have to live off of my savings, and others I think I'm in for more than I baragained for. The only things that comforts me is knowing that 1) I will make it through this regardless of waiting patiently or impatiently and 2) I will become a doctor at some point.
Until then, I will continue to wait and wonder.
On Difficult Students
Earning a PhD usually includes some form of teaching along the way. I have been able to support myself through graduate school by working as a teaching assistant for the university. In exchange for teaching two courses a semester, I receive a tuition remission, a stipend and health insurance. This set up usually works in my favor, but sometimes teaching results in negative influences on my research.
In general, it has been a lot better to be a linguistics TA than a German TA research-wise. It takes way less effort to teach my linguistics courses well than introductory German classes. There's very little paper cutting, game making, grading and meetings involved teaching linguistics, whereas when I taught German at the university level, I spent 1-2 hours prepping for each hour in the classroom. I also enjoy that I don't have to proctor and grade 40 oral exams each semester. The drawbacks are I get to know my students less teaching linguistics and I have to be more creative to entertain my students while teaching something they're not really that interested in.
This year's teaching has been good for my Geraldine research. I teach two online courses and don't have to attend a lecture. I have missed the interaction with my students, but it has been a lot easier to tell students that I won't give them an extension when I've never met them to begin with.
When I taught high school, I thought that my students were good at creating excuses about missing assignments. They had a track meet/ play rehearsal/ forgot their book/ whatever. I knew their schedules and it was easy to tell when they were lying and it was easy to tell them no. I thought it would be the same at the university, but teaching adults is a completely different story. Adults have very different reasons for not completing their homework. Common excuses include work, roommates, trips to the ER, and family. Extreme excuses that I have received include:
Being held up at gun point and while having a laptop stolen, thus not being able to take the midterm, which had nothing to do with a laptop, computers, or was on the same day as the robbery
Being in jail
Deaths in the family (usually a parent)
Accidently shooting the family dog while hunting
Pregnancy
Divorce
Car accidents on the way to the final or midterm exam
Joining the army and leaving for bootcamp
Being in a national ultimate frisbee competition
Most students let me know about crazy circumstances ahead of time. I have a good relationship with my students and they know that I am happy to give them an extension if they need one, as long as they let me know AHEAD of time. If the gods weren't on their sides and they let me know after something was due (or when they get their final grade and want a higher one), I tell them "It sucks to be you" (only with nicer and more professional words).
Now that I teach online, I never get to meet my students. This means that a male 19 year old named Jamie who's on vacation in Hawaii can e-mail me with "I've been pregnant all semester and went into preterm labor. Between being in the NICU and trying to keep my job, I haven't been able to keep up with assignments. If I don't pass this class, I'll lose my financial aid and won't be able to pay rent. I'm a single mother."
"Does this really happen" you ask? Yes. And most of my students have an online presence that can inform me if they're lying. For example, "Jamie" has pictures of himself on the beach in Hawaii drinking beer, not of the cute new imaginary infant on his facebook page. But most of my students aren't that dumb, or creative, or imaginative. And most of my students just do their work to begin with. I only hear from them when they really, really, really want an A.
And today's dilemna? A student with a very long list of things that prevented completing assignments for the course including: death, divorce, hospitalization, children, no internet, unemployment and sick family members. Totally taken off guard by the litany of bad karma, I just forwarded the e-mail to my department chair and asked for guidance on how to best respond. I hope he comes up with something good. I have a dissertation to work on instead of feeling like a bad person for saying "I'm sorry, I don't accept late assignments."
In general, it has been a lot better to be a linguistics TA than a German TA research-wise. It takes way less effort to teach my linguistics courses well than introductory German classes. There's very little paper cutting, game making, grading and meetings involved teaching linguistics, whereas when I taught German at the university level, I spent 1-2 hours prepping for each hour in the classroom. I also enjoy that I don't have to proctor and grade 40 oral exams each semester. The drawbacks are I get to know my students less teaching linguistics and I have to be more creative to entertain my students while teaching something they're not really that interested in.
This year's teaching has been good for my Geraldine research. I teach two online courses and don't have to attend a lecture. I have missed the interaction with my students, but it has been a lot easier to tell students that I won't give them an extension when I've never met them to begin with.
When I taught high school, I thought that my students were good at creating excuses about missing assignments. They had a track meet/ play rehearsal/ forgot their book/ whatever. I knew their schedules and it was easy to tell when they were lying and it was easy to tell them no. I thought it would be the same at the university, but teaching adults is a completely different story. Adults have very different reasons for not completing their homework. Common excuses include work, roommates, trips to the ER, and family. Extreme excuses that I have received include:
Being held up at gun point and while having a laptop stolen, thus not being able to take the midterm, which had nothing to do with a laptop, computers, or was on the same day as the robbery
Being in jail
Deaths in the family (usually a parent)
Accidently shooting the family dog while hunting
Pregnancy
Divorce
Car accidents on the way to the final or midterm exam
Joining the army and leaving for bootcamp
Being in a national ultimate frisbee competition
Most students let me know about crazy circumstances ahead of time. I have a good relationship with my students and they know that I am happy to give them an extension if they need one, as long as they let me know AHEAD of time. If the gods weren't on their sides and they let me know after something was due (or when they get their final grade and want a higher one), I tell them "It sucks to be you" (only with nicer and more professional words).
Now that I teach online, I never get to meet my students. This means that a male 19 year old named Jamie who's on vacation in Hawaii can e-mail me with "I've been pregnant all semester and went into preterm labor. Between being in the NICU and trying to keep my job, I haven't been able to keep up with assignments. If I don't pass this class, I'll lose my financial aid and won't be able to pay rent. I'm a single mother."
"Does this really happen" you ask? Yes. And most of my students have an online presence that can inform me if they're lying. For example, "Jamie" has pictures of himself on the beach in Hawaii drinking beer, not of the cute new imaginary infant on his facebook page. But most of my students aren't that dumb, or creative, or imaginative. And most of my students just do their work to begin with. I only hear from them when they really, really, really want an A.
And today's dilemna? A student with a very long list of things that prevented completing assignments for the course including: death, divorce, hospitalization, children, no internet, unemployment and sick family members. Totally taken off guard by the litany of bad karma, I just forwarded the e-mail to my department chair and asked for guidance on how to best respond. I hope he comes up with something good. I have a dissertation to work on instead of feeling like a bad person for saying "I'm sorry, I don't accept late assignments."
Monday, April 9, 2012
Geraldine Post Easter
Geraldine and I made it into the Easter season. This means a few things:
1) I don't have to learn any new music for the next 50 days
2) I can eat a lot of discounted Easter candy while working on Geraldine until the stores find some other seasonal thing to sell.
3) If I suddenly become fat from eating too much Easter candy and an increase in sitting to work on Geraldine, the stores that sold me the Easter candy will certainly have fun summer-time toys to burn off the candy.
4) I might just buy a hammock and take a nap instead because I'm pretty tired!
I am travelling this weekend to present non-Geraldine research at a conference. My dry-run of my research was well received at my department colloquium last Friday. Maybe it was birthday luck, but I prefer to think it was because I chose a topic that most people don't know anything about, so it's easier to sound like I know what I'm talking about and convince people I am right. :) I have a few changes to make to my handout, thanks to the helpfull comments from friends and colleagues and will entertain myself later this week by drawing arrows and dashed lines all over my handout for viewers like you.
Last week was exhausting but it was also really fun. In addition to writing the first 20 pages of Geraldine, I sang at 5 church services, had two music rehearsals, enjoyed Easter with my inlaws and opened birthday presents. It was a good week, and now I have new gnomes to finish my work for me when I fall asleep. After all, gnomes like discounted Easter candy too.
So now it's Monday and back to work, right? Well.... it took a while to accept that motto. I woke up early and decided that my bed was too warm not to enjoy for another two hours. Usually I feel guilty when I sleep in, but today I just thought about not wanting to have cold ankles and couldn't figure out what I wanted to work on in terms of Geraldine anyways. Nevertheless, I made it to my office during office hours and proceeded to talk to my friends for an hour instead of actually accomplishing anything. Then I sat around in my office for an hour trying to decide what to do. There were no good e-mails to distract me and my pile of notes for my lit review didn't look inviting. I don't have anything to pick up from the library and didn't feel like returning anything. So what did I do? I changed the clock battery and ate my lunch. Knowing that I had about 20 minutes to start something before Kelly's Monday office arrival, I started working on my methods chapter. Low and behold, I wrote 10 pages with ease and managed to accomplish more than change the office clock battery.
Now I will walk to the bus stop, but only after I walk past the department office and eat more discount Easter candy.
1) I don't have to learn any new music for the next 50 days
2) I can eat a lot of discounted Easter candy while working on Geraldine until the stores find some other seasonal thing to sell.
3) If I suddenly become fat from eating too much Easter candy and an increase in sitting to work on Geraldine, the stores that sold me the Easter candy will certainly have fun summer-time toys to burn off the candy.
4) I might just buy a hammock and take a nap instead because I'm pretty tired!
I am travelling this weekend to present non-Geraldine research at a conference. My dry-run of my research was well received at my department colloquium last Friday. Maybe it was birthday luck, but I prefer to think it was because I chose a topic that most people don't know anything about, so it's easier to sound like I know what I'm talking about and convince people I am right. :) I have a few changes to make to my handout, thanks to the helpfull comments from friends and colleagues and will entertain myself later this week by drawing arrows and dashed lines all over my handout for viewers like you.
Last week was exhausting but it was also really fun. In addition to writing the first 20 pages of Geraldine, I sang at 5 church services, had two music rehearsals, enjoyed Easter with my inlaws and opened birthday presents. It was a good week, and now I have new gnomes to finish my work for me when I fall asleep. After all, gnomes like discounted Easter candy too.
So now it's Monday and back to work, right? Well.... it took a while to accept that motto. I woke up early and decided that my bed was too warm not to enjoy for another two hours. Usually I feel guilty when I sleep in, but today I just thought about not wanting to have cold ankles and couldn't figure out what I wanted to work on in terms of Geraldine anyways. Nevertheless, I made it to my office during office hours and proceeded to talk to my friends for an hour instead of actually accomplishing anything. Then I sat around in my office for an hour trying to decide what to do. There were no good e-mails to distract me and my pile of notes for my lit review didn't look inviting. I don't have anything to pick up from the library and didn't feel like returning anything. So what did I do? I changed the clock battery and ate my lunch. Knowing that I had about 20 minutes to start something before Kelly's Monday office arrival, I started working on my methods chapter. Low and behold, I wrote 10 pages with ease and managed to accomplish more than change the office clock battery.
Now I will walk to the bus stop, but only after I walk past the department office and eat more discount Easter candy.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
On remembering to enjoy the craziest part of the year: Part II
Having 48 hours off from singing has allowed me to take a break from having a split personality assignment for the week. That assignment resumes tonight and continues until Saturday night. Knowing that the craziest won't stop for a while, I've been pushing myself to the extreme over the last two days.
On Tuesday, I read the whole bus ride to my office. Upon arriving at the office, I graded 20 or so student assignments and wrote an e-mail to my students in cyberspace reminding them that they had a homework deadline this week. Meanwhile I asked myself why I made the assignment due date during Holy Week. What was I thinking? I hate grading... was I secretly plotting to give myself an extra form of pennance before Easter? Apparently so. Thankfully no one responded to my e-mail with stupid questions, such as "what's the assignment?", saving me from typing smart alec responses of "read the syllabus."
Grading taken care of for the day, I then responded to a bizaar but flattering e-mail from China. It seems that my fame is spreading as a linguist and not because I bake snacks every week or provide entertainment. Nope. Someone in China read my work and knows that I exist and requested to become my doctoral student! At first, I thought that maybe I just had too many papers on a language of China that placed me on China's spy radar. But the e-mail seemed to specific to linguistics for it to be a form of espionage (unless there is a linguist spy that writes flattering e-mails about studying under my guidance). I wrote back and explained that I'm not a professor yet, thus I can't take on students at this time but to contact the following people and programs in the US that would be a better match. Then I wondered whether this is what happens when someone becomes a professor. Memories of writing to random people in other places about their classes, work,etc. filled my mind. The feeling was similar to my realization at my last major linguistics conference that someday soon, the names on books for sale in the vendor room will no longer be names to me, rather they will turn into: Oh, the person who has cool shoes, that weirdo with the funny twitch, and the obnoxious person who hits on me after. Ah..... the first glimpses of the ivory tower.... :)
And then? Daydream bursted, back to work, no time to be lazy, it's Holy Week and there's a lot to do... Ack!
I spent the afternoon printing my annotated bibliography, cutting out each paragraph/ citation and then organizing it into piles on the department conference table. This of course was met with numerous looks and comments from bystanders ranging from "what are you doing?" (innocent curiosity and comradery), "Now what are you doing?" (curiosity about the department's crazy person) and "um.........." (clearly we shouldn't have offered you a contract for next year because you appear to be wasting your time and department resources). Pride aside, I marched triumphantly back to my office with an organized pile of notes arranged in categories for section headings, and proceeded to write the first 3 pages of Geraldine's literature review.
Once I came home, I learned that Hubby had a rejection letter regarding studying in Berlin this summer. Bummer for Hubby, but at least now I know that we might see each other for more than 10 minutes more than two days in a row sometime soon. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that this doesn't mean he'll get another rejection letter informing him that he didn't get into his anticipated doctoral program. After all, Hubby doesn't think that I should be the only one in either of our families to have the title 'doctor.' Honestly, I think he just thinks our rabbit will pay more attention to me than him after I receive that title (You know... Bugs Bunny... What's up, doc?)
Wednesday was another productive day. I reread one of my research papers on the bus ride to the office and made an hourly to-do chart as soon as I got to my desk. Then I stuck to my to-do list like glue and managed to do everything as planned: revise slides and handout for this week's colloquium and next week's conference paper presentation, grade 50 assingments, take care of e-mails, have a break, write 5 more pages of lit review. Wow! I can't believe I did it, but once I did, I didn't feel like I had accomplished anything. I forced myself to go home and stop working.
At home, I learned that Hubby's written comprehensive exam for his MA was moved from this Friday to next Friday due to a scheduling flaw. Hmmm... Rather than criticize those that made the error (which, by the way, I have known existed for about two months now), I let Hubby tell me that this means he'll have time to do something for my birthday now (which is on Friday). Woopee! Maybe this means that I can stop anticipating the trend of "forget Kelsie's birthday even though it's the day after my brother's." Thinking that maybe Hubby would stop being stressed out that I don't have to tip toe for the next two days, I took off and went to a riding lesson, even though all I really wanted to do was work for the next three hours. Instead I ate chocolate and told myself that I am a bad Catholic for eating sweets before Easter... but at least no one will be able to tell because my voice will be okay tonight. ;0)
And today? Well, this morning I wrote another 3 pages and responded to e-mails about phonology, thinking that I would catch Indiana in his class today. During my lunch break, I learned that there is a test in that class today so there was no point in me sitting in on it, thus.... extra time to write a blog, take a break, and write another 3 pages before switching gears and going to mass tonight.
Today's pep talk to myself ends as follows: Kelsie, breath! Okay, now breath again. Now hold your breath for the next 48 hours while remembering to be prayerful and mournful tomorrow when you're not trying to be Wonder Woman, Betty Crocker, June Cleever or the linguistic department's Golden Child.
Crazy? Yes. But I'm enjoying it.
On Tuesday, I read the whole bus ride to my office. Upon arriving at the office, I graded 20 or so student assignments and wrote an e-mail to my students in cyberspace reminding them that they had a homework deadline this week. Meanwhile I asked myself why I made the assignment due date during Holy Week. What was I thinking? I hate grading... was I secretly plotting to give myself an extra form of pennance before Easter? Apparently so. Thankfully no one responded to my e-mail with stupid questions, such as "what's the assignment?", saving me from typing smart alec responses of "read the syllabus."
Grading taken care of for the day, I then responded to a bizaar but flattering e-mail from China. It seems that my fame is spreading as a linguist and not because I bake snacks every week or provide entertainment. Nope. Someone in China read my work and knows that I exist and requested to become my doctoral student! At first, I thought that maybe I just had too many papers on a language of China that placed me on China's spy radar. But the e-mail seemed to specific to linguistics for it to be a form of espionage (unless there is a linguist spy that writes flattering e-mails about studying under my guidance). I wrote back and explained that I'm not a professor yet, thus I can't take on students at this time but to contact the following people and programs in the US that would be a better match. Then I wondered whether this is what happens when someone becomes a professor. Memories of writing to random people in other places about their classes, work,etc. filled my mind. The feeling was similar to my realization at my last major linguistics conference that someday soon, the names on books for sale in the vendor room will no longer be names to me, rather they will turn into: Oh, the person who has cool shoes, that weirdo with the funny twitch, and the obnoxious person who hits on me after. Ah..... the first glimpses of the ivory tower.... :)
And then? Daydream bursted, back to work, no time to be lazy, it's Holy Week and there's a lot to do... Ack!
I spent the afternoon printing my annotated bibliography, cutting out each paragraph/ citation and then organizing it into piles on the department conference table. This of course was met with numerous looks and comments from bystanders ranging from "what are you doing?" (innocent curiosity and comradery), "Now what are you doing?" (curiosity about the department's crazy person) and "um.........." (clearly we shouldn't have offered you a contract for next year because you appear to be wasting your time and department resources). Pride aside, I marched triumphantly back to my office with an organized pile of notes arranged in categories for section headings, and proceeded to write the first 3 pages of Geraldine's literature review.
Once I came home, I learned that Hubby had a rejection letter regarding studying in Berlin this summer. Bummer for Hubby, but at least now I know that we might see each other for more than 10 minutes more than two days in a row sometime soon. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that this doesn't mean he'll get another rejection letter informing him that he didn't get into his anticipated doctoral program. After all, Hubby doesn't think that I should be the only one in either of our families to have the title 'doctor.' Honestly, I think he just thinks our rabbit will pay more attention to me than him after I receive that title (You know... Bugs Bunny... What's up, doc?)
Wednesday was another productive day. I reread one of my research papers on the bus ride to the office and made an hourly to-do chart as soon as I got to my desk. Then I stuck to my to-do list like glue and managed to do everything as planned: revise slides and handout for this week's colloquium and next week's conference paper presentation, grade 50 assingments, take care of e-mails, have a break, write 5 more pages of lit review. Wow! I can't believe I did it, but once I did, I didn't feel like I had accomplished anything. I forced myself to go home and stop working.
At home, I learned that Hubby's written comprehensive exam for his MA was moved from this Friday to next Friday due to a scheduling flaw. Hmmm... Rather than criticize those that made the error (which, by the way, I have known existed for about two months now), I let Hubby tell me that this means he'll have time to do something for my birthday now (which is on Friday). Woopee! Maybe this means that I can stop anticipating the trend of "forget Kelsie's birthday even though it's the day after my brother's." Thinking that maybe Hubby would stop being stressed out that I don't have to tip toe for the next two days, I took off and went to a riding lesson, even though all I really wanted to do was work for the next three hours. Instead I ate chocolate and told myself that I am a bad Catholic for eating sweets before Easter... but at least no one will be able to tell because my voice will be okay tonight. ;0)
And today? Well, this morning I wrote another 3 pages and responded to e-mails about phonology, thinking that I would catch Indiana in his class today. During my lunch break, I learned that there is a test in that class today so there was no point in me sitting in on it, thus.... extra time to write a blog, take a break, and write another 3 pages before switching gears and going to mass tonight.
Today's pep talk to myself ends as follows: Kelsie, breath! Okay, now breath again. Now hold your breath for the next 48 hours while remembering to be prayerful and mournful tomorrow when you're not trying to be Wonder Woman, Betty Crocker, June Cleever or the linguistic department's Golden Child.
Crazy? Yes. But I'm enjoying it.
On remembering to enjoy the craziest week of the year: Part I
Most people I know think that the time leading up to Christmas is the craziest time of year. It's a time to buy people presents, sing songs, watch special movies, spend time with family and maybe fit in a church service too, depending on the individual. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the only stress I am sure to feel is from my music director who extends our practices an extra half an hour, hangs her head after a choir member innocently hits a note too flat and makes us try to same annoying song again, for the thousandth time.
For many Germans, the week preceeding lent is the craziest time of year. In fact, the German term for it is the crazy days. People wear costumes, get really drunk, and pull crazy pranks on each other. Although I have yet to experience this time of year in Germany first hand, I believe that it's crazy.
And for me? This is the craziest week of the year, period. I sing at four church services, have two rehearsals, have to make time for my inlaws while completing my normal work week. This is fine, except that it's never a "normal" week leading up to Easter. So far, the week is going as expected.
I had an early morning rehearsal with my music director on Monday. The only thing unusual about it was that it took place right before a funeral started. Usually we rehearse in my director's office, but as she unexpectedly had to play at a funeral on Monday, we met at the parish instead. I arrived before my music director to find a church full of loud Italians standing around a corpse-filled coffin. It seemed that it was more interesting to talk about anything but the elderly lady who was peacefully laying in the middle of the church. Meanwhile I searched for my director and returned the parish's cross necklace I accidently walked out of church still wearing on Sunday (I used to accidently steal hymnals but as those have been replaced with paper booklets, that doesn't happen anymore). I found my director and recognised that the previous 10 minutes would have been really weird anywhere else, but somehow they weren't weird because I was at church during Holy Week and where everything is fair game.
In my office, I finished making tables/charts from Geraldine's database. Then I spent an hour double checking fonts, font sizes and borders for uniform consistency throughout my files. It felt like it took forever to look though all of my charts. I made over 40. Relieved to be done, I sent copies to Indiana and Dumbledore. Dumbledore likes my work, but Indiana has yet to reply.
Then I left the office and headed back to church for another music rehearsal, only this time it was with the choir and three instrumentalists. In my four years' of singing for Holy Week at this parish, this was the fastest and easiest Monday night rehearsal ever. There was no yelling, no batons flying out of hands, no ugly notes... everything went smoothly and quickly ended in the regular "there's nothing else to do but enter the mystery of Holy Week... so start praying and show up on time...." pep talk that ends this rehearsal and my two day break from a split personality assignment started.
For many Germans, the week preceeding lent is the craziest time of year. In fact, the German term for it is the crazy days. People wear costumes, get really drunk, and pull crazy pranks on each other. Although I have yet to experience this time of year in Germany first hand, I believe that it's crazy.
And for me? This is the craziest week of the year, period. I sing at four church services, have two rehearsals, have to make time for my inlaws while completing my normal work week. This is fine, except that it's never a "normal" week leading up to Easter. So far, the week is going as expected.
I had an early morning rehearsal with my music director on Monday. The only thing unusual about it was that it took place right before a funeral started. Usually we rehearse in my director's office, but as she unexpectedly had to play at a funeral on Monday, we met at the parish instead. I arrived before my music director to find a church full of loud Italians standing around a corpse-filled coffin. It seemed that it was more interesting to talk about anything but the elderly lady who was peacefully laying in the middle of the church. Meanwhile I searched for my director and returned the parish's cross necklace I accidently walked out of church still wearing on Sunday (I used to accidently steal hymnals but as those have been replaced with paper booklets, that doesn't happen anymore). I found my director and recognised that the previous 10 minutes would have been really weird anywhere else, but somehow they weren't weird because I was at church during Holy Week and where everything is fair game.
In my office, I finished making tables/charts from Geraldine's database. Then I spent an hour double checking fonts, font sizes and borders for uniform consistency throughout my files. It felt like it took forever to look though all of my charts. I made over 40. Relieved to be done, I sent copies to Indiana and Dumbledore. Dumbledore likes my work, but Indiana has yet to reply.
Then I left the office and headed back to church for another music rehearsal, only this time it was with the choir and three instrumentalists. In my four years' of singing for Holy Week at this parish, this was the fastest and easiest Monday night rehearsal ever. There was no yelling, no batons flying out of hands, no ugly notes... everything went smoothly and quickly ended in the regular "there's nothing else to do but enter the mystery of Holy Week... so start praying and show up on time...." pep talk that ends this rehearsal and my two day break from a split personality assignment started.
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