I haven't made any progress towards getting my fiancé on Facebook, but he did finally succumb to the siren song of blogging. What can I say about this fabulous guy? He's the best ever, a total keeper, and I'm one lucky girl.
Without further ado:
Go here, and add it to your regular blog-reading schedule.
But don't get your hopes up, gals. He's all mine.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Sweet, sweet wireless... plus ruminations
Ah, yeah, I feel better now. My apartment is now fully hooked up and operational, internet-wise. Actually, I've been online for a couple of days already, thanks to the Super8 across the street's unsecured connection... for whatever reason, it stopped requesting a password when my computer tried to link in this weekend. I don't know if it was a policy change or a mistake, but moderate internet functionality did much to assuage the residual frustration from my wireless router shipping rigamarole of last week.
I did promise some pictures of the new apartment. I think I'll hold off, though, as my folks are coming up this weekend with curtains, which can only add to the homey-ness of the place. Otherwise, the creature-comforts are largely taken care of... I even took the time last week to orange-glo every square inch of floor space I could get to. Shiny and happy. Plus I can walk around barefoot now without acquiring a protective patina of construction dust on the soles of my feet.
I've survived my Ph.D. program's orientation retreat, the graduate school's orientation seminar, and another day of institute orientation to the logistical side of registering for classes, looking for rotation advisors, and whatnot. Another meeting tomorrow morning with my shiny new advisory committee and a meeting in lab with a potential fall-rotation advisor or two is on the docket for tomorrow. In the evening, there's essentially the Northwestern version of the fall Cabaret called the All-Cappella concert. The supremely laid-back (no audition process, no concerts per se but the occasional nursing home gig) grad student group is seeking sopranos. I hear some of the other groups also take old folks like me, so it's a good chance to give everybody a listen and see what's out there. Friday is class registration, and classes officially start Wednesday next week although we have a Monday seminar thrown in for fun.
In other words, I finally have a schedule to fill my time. And it's WONDERFUL! Being busy again is like some kind of holy grail... maybe not at the level of senior year at Kenyon, because that bordered on pathological, but I'm ready to focus and work hard and start accomplishing things again. Maybe it's not a fair assessment, but I still find myself thinking that F-bright, though an accomplishment in and of itself, was unproductive in the end. Sure, I can say I lived abroad. I can say I made strides with a second language, experienced a new culture, made friends and had a taste of independence. I learned to cook, at least a bit. All of that is valuable. But in terms of where my goals and aspirations lie, the research side of things was not the focal point I had hoped it would be. Now, that side of my life is coming back into view... and I'm realizing that I missed it. Arguably, also a valuable realization.
I'm also really pumped about the first-year Fundamentals course. The way it's been described to me, the format is very similar to Intro Neuro as I experienced it: in-depth topics with well-versed faculty, plenty of topical variety, challenging material thrown at us at breakneck speed, while we attempt to get as much of it as possible to stick. Maybe it's not everybody's cup of tea, but I'm anticipating more mental stimulation than you can shake a stick at, and it makes me happy. I already visualize myself riding the El home, mind a whirlwind, everything around me coming in at an entirely new perspective as though the top had been lifted off the universe to let the light come pouring in. Good college courses gave me that feeling on a regular basis, and some of my clearest images of Kenyon - familiar faces, lush trees, genteel buildings, the sky in Ohio winter and spring's aquamarine and oh so many other hues - are evoked from the perspective of strolling down middle path lost in the marvel of the previous hour or so's in-class experience. I can't wait to recapture that, and I'm confident that I can.
Enough gushing. I do have to sleep so that I make it to tomorrow's obligations. I'm sure I'll have sweet dreams.
I did promise some pictures of the new apartment. I think I'll hold off, though, as my folks are coming up this weekend with curtains, which can only add to the homey-ness of the place. Otherwise, the creature-comforts are largely taken care of... I even took the time last week to orange-glo every square inch of floor space I could get to. Shiny and happy. Plus I can walk around barefoot now without acquiring a protective patina of construction dust on the soles of my feet.
I've survived my Ph.D. program's orientation retreat, the graduate school's orientation seminar, and another day of institute orientation to the logistical side of registering for classes, looking for rotation advisors, and whatnot. Another meeting tomorrow morning with my shiny new advisory committee and a meeting in lab with a potential fall-rotation advisor or two is on the docket for tomorrow. In the evening, there's essentially the Northwestern version of the fall Cabaret called the All-Cappella concert. The supremely laid-back (no audition process, no concerts per se but the occasional nursing home gig) grad student group is seeking sopranos. I hear some of the other groups also take old folks like me, so it's a good chance to give everybody a listen and see what's out there. Friday is class registration, and classes officially start Wednesday next week although we have a Monday seminar thrown in for fun.
In other words, I finally have a schedule to fill my time. And it's WONDERFUL! Being busy again is like some kind of holy grail... maybe not at the level of senior year at Kenyon, because that bordered on pathological, but I'm ready to focus and work hard and start accomplishing things again. Maybe it's not a fair assessment, but I still find myself thinking that F-bright, though an accomplishment in and of itself, was unproductive in the end. Sure, I can say I lived abroad. I can say I made strides with a second language, experienced a new culture, made friends and had a taste of independence. I learned to cook, at least a bit. All of that is valuable. But in terms of where my goals and aspirations lie, the research side of things was not the focal point I had hoped it would be. Now, that side of my life is coming back into view... and I'm realizing that I missed it. Arguably, also a valuable realization.
I'm also really pumped about the first-year Fundamentals course. The way it's been described to me, the format is very similar to Intro Neuro as I experienced it: in-depth topics with well-versed faculty, plenty of topical variety, challenging material thrown at us at breakneck speed, while we attempt to get as much of it as possible to stick. Maybe it's not everybody's cup of tea, but I'm anticipating more mental stimulation than you can shake a stick at, and it makes me happy. I already visualize myself riding the El home, mind a whirlwind, everything around me coming in at an entirely new perspective as though the top had been lifted off the universe to let the light come pouring in. Good college courses gave me that feeling on a regular basis, and some of my clearest images of Kenyon - familiar faces, lush trees, genteel buildings, the sky in Ohio winter and spring's aquamarine and oh so many other hues - are evoked from the perspective of strolling down middle path lost in the marvel of the previous hour or so's in-class experience. I can't wait to recapture that, and I'm confident that I can.
Enough gushing. I do have to sleep so that I make it to tomorrow's obligations. I'm sure I'll have sweet dreams.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
In withdrawal
Just to keep everybody up to date, I'm settled in at my new apartment in lovely Rogers Park, a north Chicago neighborhood. The difficulty at the moment, however, is my inability to set up internet service I'm already paying for thanks to a certain major shipping company's difficulties in delivering the necessary setup components. Hopefully this will be resolved shortly and I can stop tearing my hair out...
When things are up and going, I'll post some pics of the new place... and probably my assesment of the whole "grad school" transition. Hopefully a happy one.
Sigh. I miss my internet.
When things are up and going, I'll post some pics of the new place... and probably my assesment of the whole "grad school" transition. Hopefully a happy one.
Sigh. I miss my internet.
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