Archive for the 'Dissing the dissertation' Category

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When a girl’s got nothing to say.

Published on July 21, 2006 in Dissing the dissertation and I'm healthy. 2 Comments

It has been hot here. And we don’t have AC. I am going to Las Vegas to meet my family. My sister and Winemonkey are going. I don’t want to make any more decisions.

I think that is my biggest problem these days. Decisions. I can’t seem to make them. And trying to make them sends me into these fits where I want to cry, run, and punch someone in the throat all at the same time.

I have about a month to get my shit together to teach. I am nervous and I still have a month to go.

I have only 1 more week of work left before I go on vacation and begin preparing for classes.

I finally have an outcome on the last chapter of the dissertation. Good thing too. Because the thought of not getting finished is enough to finish me. Should have worked on it today, but instead I made myself another pair of pants and watched Dodgeball.

FYI – when your washer stops running, it means one of two things:
1. Your clothes are done being washed, or
2. Your washer can not handle washing ~3 loads of laundry in one load.

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Traveling back east.

Published on June 20, 2006 in Dissing the dissertation and family ties. Closed

East to Sacramento that is. I am gearing up for a meeting with my advisor. He wants to see a time line for my disseration. I keep trying to tell him that is a waste of time for me to make these time lines. If I had followed a SINGLE one of them, I would have been done CENTURIES ago. But alas, here I am, still knee deep in dissertation crap and scrambling for air. The only thing I can say is that I look forward to this all being in the past. But I say that all of time.

A few weeks ago my mom told me that her and my dad bet on whether or not I would finish by the end of June. Meaning one had faith that I would finish and one didn’t. And I know which one had the faith and which one didn’t. There was no winning this one. The one that had faith would lose faith when I didn’t finish and the other would already know that I wasn’t going to finish and never had faith to begin with. Which is worse?

Apparently there was something big riding on this bet. And I was pretty pissed that they bet at all and couldn’t figure out why my mom told me in the first place. I am guessing that they think it is taking me so long because I procrastinate. And that has a little to do with it. But it also has to do with a million other things as well.

But that is all the past. (I called my mom to talk about it and she made it clear that they are not dissapointed in me and all of the other things a great mom does when you tell her your feelings are hurt.) Even if I could have finished by the end of June, I wouldn’t have wanted to. See, the beautiful thing about grad school is that they pay me to do this shit. And what with not being able to work the month of August and wondering how I was going to pay all of my bills, stretching it out another month was really the best idea I have had in my entire life. Because even though I don’t work on my dissertation 40 hours a week, I am getting paid like I do. Add that to the part time job that I am working, and you are looking at a girl who might actually accumulate a savings. You read that right, a SAVINGS.

So even if the loser of the bet loses something big, or owes the winner something big, I sleep better at night knowing that I can afford to take my first trip to Las Vegas to meet my parents in August. I sleep better at night, knowing that my rent won’t be late and my bill payments are all on time. And mostly, I sleep better knowing that I won’t have to ask for financial help in the month of August, because I might actually have this money thing under control.

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Super ninja-like reflexes.

Published on May 22, 2006 in Dissing the dissertation. Closed

What do you do when you realize that you have a meeting with your advisor in t-minus 90 minutes?

Well, if you are me, you put a bunch of data together that you will claim took you two weeks when really it just took you an hour. Oh – and you hope he believes you.

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Working working working.

Published on May 2, 2006 in Dissing the dissertation and Trabajo. 1 Comment

Well. Here it goes. I started my new job yesterday. You know, the one I acquired in the sand box. And it was really nice. I like doing office work as much as I like teaching, and I don’t get the anxiety attacks like I do before I teach. I am excited to go back tomorrow. I am a little concerned that the hours that they want me to work and that hours that I am capable of working are not one and the same. I somehow convinced my graduate student advisor to pay me 30% instead of 25% but I didn’t tell him that I have another job. When summer rolls around, I will hopefully be making 50% from him and working almost full time for my friends.

I turned in my second draft today and it was totally uneventful. He was pleased with the amount of digging I did to get information about what kinds of activities were going on at the samping sites. So that is always a bonus. And I think he is satisfied that I have fixed one of the broken instruments in the lab.

Now if only I could get ONE good-paying job instead of three mediocre paying jobs. Then I would be set. Right?

Gotta go keep being productive.

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Good ole homestead.

Published on April 24, 2006 in Dissing the dissertation. Closed

Winemonkey not only had Friday off, but he has today off as well. So for him it was a four day weekend. The disadvantage is that I have taken a three day weekend and I have a lot of stuff to get done today before I meet with my advisor tomorrow. Just like always. But at lest I am feeling motivated – sort of.

This morning I needed to clear off my desk, which meant that at least three other organization projects needed to take place. And with Winemonkey’s help, things got cleared up much faster and with much less frustration on my part. This organization thing made me go through one of my boxes full of band stickers and random momentos, of which I have MANY. The ones I ran across today ranged from a mass dedicated to my grandpap, who passed away three years ago… to a newspaper clipping of a high school gym teacher that one of my friends and I picked on all of the time. Ahhh…. the laughing and the crying.

Well… off to the paper and then hopefully some homespun yoga.

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Sitting by the 340 degree heat source

Published on April 19, 2006 in Dissing the dissertation. Closed

I hate when ALL of the tech people on the east coast go to lunch at the same time. Because when the piece of equipment I am trying to fix heats up to WELL about the recommended 290 + or – 10 degrees, I want help NOW. Not 45 minutes from now. I haven’t had breakfast. I want to get on the road back to my house. And here I am sitting around waiting for ALL of the tech people to come back from lunch.

Bastards.

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