The Graduate

Me and Kyle
(no, I'm not sleepy--it was an ill-timed blink)

That would be me! And quite a few of my friends, too. Graduation weekend has come and gone and what the frenzied time it was.

The rest of my family: dad, his girlfriend, her kids, and Kyle came in Friday and provided quite the cheering section at graduation. After the ceremony, which I thought was pretty good, we headed out to our dinner spot and indulged in a few pre-dinner celebratory cocktails. It was also my dad's birthday and grandma special ordered an amazing cake--seriously, one of the tastiest treats I've had in a long time. Ah, family. We had a good time.

There was an abundance of activity Saturday as the fam rushed around in final preparations for the graduation party Saturday night. Jillene (my dad's girlfriend) and her sister went above and beyond in the planning of this party and it was a truly beautiful event. Unfortunately, it felt as if my family was gone before I even realized they were here. I miss them already.

So now I'm a graduate. Life doesn't feel much different, but I'm sure everything will hit me at some random moment in the next few weeks when I suddenly realize that friends have gone away and I'm working an 8 to 4 job. Yes, I accepted the job. BUT that doesn't mean that I'm not doing the PhD thing. I have faith that everything will fall into place in due time. In the mean time, while I'm trying to adjust to no homework, no classes, few friends, and a commute, I'll be buying a new mountain bike with some graduation money, revamping my (previously nonexistant) work wardrobe, and patiently waiting for Kyle to finish his first year of med school. How much am I looking forward to the summer? ;-)

There will be actual graduation pics soon, but here are a few from the party:

Kyle and some of the fam

Josh and his great grandpa out for a walk

Some of the party guests

Arrrggghhh!

No, I am not a pirate.

That was a manifestation of my frustration. Apparently the UM email server that 'serves' me is down. It has been down since 1:15 pm today. I am waiting for a very important email. I can't tell if that email has arrived because the server is down. Not to mention a little thing called graduation that is taking place tomorrow -- I found out through a friend whose server IS working that SPH sent out a summary email today regarding the graduation ceremony. Oops.

Can there be any worse timing than now for the server to fail? Don't respond to that.

So if anyone is trying to reach me regarding graduation stuff or the party on Saturday--call me!

OK, so some of this frustration may be due to sleepiness. I'm super sleepy. So sleepy in fact that I had to cut out of a party tonight to come home and go to sleep. I washed and waxed my car today--maybe that has something to do with my sleepiness.......

Regardless of the email malfunction and my inability to function socially at the present time, I'm excited about graduation and seeing my family. Gma and Gpa arrived today and took me out to dinner. Dad and the entourage are arriving tomorrow morning. The apartment is sparkling clean and my car is waxed (so hopefully dad won't freak when he finds out that I hadn't washed it in about a year). I've had free time to hang out with friends since I finished my last final on Monday AND I've come to a conclusion regarding my job/PhD dilemma. But, that news will have to wait for another time......

An offer I can't refuse....?

I had a second interview with a particular local (big) company last Thursday. I think it went well.....well, they offered me the job so I guess it couldn't have gone much better. The rub: I'm still trying to work out PhD funding. And I'm not getting very far. I told my (maybe) future employers that I need a few days to think things over and I hope that's all that it takes to sort out my funding situation. I can't pass up a good job opportunity if PhD funding isn't going to be there! A salary would be nice.....a PhD would be nice, too.

The interview in Detroit meant that I was able to spend some time with Kyle afterwards. Friday night we went to the wedding of two of Kyle's high school friends and the evening was quite the food and dance extravaganza. Of course I forgot my camera, so hopefully pics will be coming from a friend soon.

Saturday was the birthday party for Solomon and a great chance to see friends. Sorry that I couldn't head out to the afterparty-party! Jess and I ended up watching "King Kong" and while I'm not going to spoil anything for particular readers, I'll just say that I was a total girl while watching this movie :-) So be prepared!

Tomorrow is my last final! Family is arriving and I'll be a graduate by the end of the week!

Music selection of the night

I have to share what music I'm listening to right now, well, because I think it's pretty good. Check it out:

Sufjan Stevens: Chicago
His voice on this song reminds me of Ben Harper, only the music is very theatrical and grandiose. I'm a fan.

Gillian Welch: Revelator
Gillian and David Rawlings are geniuses. Even if you don't like bluegrass-esque music, you can appreciate their style and delivery. Beautiful.

Interpol: Untitled
This is good, but I think I'm a bigger fan of the songs off of "Antics".

Dixie Chicks: Godspeed
I know...Dixie Chicks. I don't own the album, just the song. It's a lullaby for her son (I believe) and I think it's beautiful. I'll make a copy for Josh to play at night when I'm not around to tuck him in.....tear.

Is it really over?

Today was my final day of classes as a masters student. Two years certainly has flown by! I graduate in a week and a half and it really hasn't hit me yet. Is there anything to hit me? Yes, graduating certainly is an accomplishment, but it doesn't have the same feeling as my high school or undergrad graduation. Maybe it's because my thesis won't be done until the end of May (that's my deadline). Maybe when my thesis is done I'll feel graduated.

I am definitely excited about my family coming into town for the ceremony. Dad, gma and gpa, dad's girlfriend, her two kids, her sister, sister's husband, and their two kids are all gonna throw me a party! Hopefully Kyle won't be too overwhelmed by my crazy family.....but I'm pretty sure he can handle the unexpected.

Speaking of Kyle, we had a great time celebrating his birthday last weekend. Festivities included competing against one another in a very heated, very close game of putt-putt (I got a hole-in-one!!). But alas, my never-used putting skills failed me on the very last hole and I lost by one.......or did I? It was Kyle's birthday after all ;-)

Josh, Jess and I colored Easter eggs and successfully prevented Josh from:

• drinking the easter egg dye
• submerging BOTH hands in the dye glasses
• any other dye-related incidences

We had a great time and Josh certainly loved it.

Now, what am I going to do with all of this free time on my hands?? Um, prepare for graduation, work a lot, and try to finalize my post-graduation plans. I've been asked back for a second interview for a real, actual epidemiologist job and I'm still waiting to hear about funding for my PhD stuff. Hopefully I hear soon!

Chocolate overload

Happy Easter to everyone!

The benefit of having a 3-year old in the house: an abundance of Easter candy. The downside of having a 3-year old in the house: an abundance of Easter candy. Looks like I'm gonna have to run a few extra miles this week :-)

Happy Birthday!

Today is Kyle's birthday and how great would it be to start the day off with a hot air balloon ride?? I'm thinkin' that's definitely a future birthday activity.

But it really doesn't get any better than a great dinner and fun with friends :-) So Happy Birthday, Kyle--I hope you enjoy your day.

Haha--you're so funny!

Two funny encounters:

Me: "I want to go to London. Hey, we should go to London, do you want to go?"
Friend (with a perplexed/disgusted look) : "NO...."
Me: "Why not?"
Friend (with a "what sort of dumb-ass are you?" look) : "I don't know how to speak French!!"


Friend (telling a story): "I was getting pretty nervous and so I was drawing on my balls...."
(Me laughing like crazy)
Friend (cracking up): No, no, no....I can't believe I said that.....my golf balls....golf balls!!


Ah, what fun :-)

Hmmm....very interesting

Anyone who has been near the school of public health in the past two years has probably noticed the huge new building going up in between SPH I and SPH II. It will be a very nice building once it is done and apparently the extra space was needed.....but why?

There is a rather mysterious and abandoned building called the "Observatory Lodge" that sits in front of SPH II. It appears to have been part of the school at one point since "Epidemiology" is on one of the entrance doors. There are stained glass windows and some interesting architectural details, but the building is dark and silent.

No one ever goes in, no one ever comes out..........until today.

As I was passing "Observatory Lodge" on my way into SPH II this morning, I happened to see three people on their way into the building. Two were wearing hard hats and all were dressed "officially". I rather subconsiously strained my neck to try and get a better look while the door was open. How bad did I want to stop them and ask if I could tag along to finally get a peek inside? And what were they doing? Are they going to tear it down? Refurbish it? Leave it abandoned to torment the imaginations of future SPH students?

I'd just like to know what happened to the building in the first place.

So worth it

Looking at the clock at 1:15 am = crap, it's really 2:15 am.
Losing one hour of sleep = cranky girl.............

7:50 pm and still light outside = well worth it.

(not an actual Michigan sunset--photo courtesy of my dad)

Da-Daaaa!

Here it is...the much requested blog update. I joke, but apparently Sol and Kara were waiting for something to happen on my blog (see comments on previous post). And Kyle made a verbal comment or two concerning the lack of blog activity, but he hears everything that goes on in my life anyway.

I'm pretty darn tired from a very late night and the loss of an hour due to daylight savings adjustments---I never realized how many people vehemently dislike daylight savings because of losing one hour of sleep---therefore I am posting a-la-Solomon and providing main points in bullet format.

• Last weekend I marveled at Kyle's soccer playing abilities. He scored a goal with his head. That's pretty cool. He was great--his team was great and it was definitely fun to watch.
  
• I've had two good PhD meetings regarding funding opportunities--so stay tuned!
• Friend Steph and her boyfriend Matt had a bunch of people over to enjoy a homemade pasta feast--it was delicious! And congrats to Steph on finishing her first half-marathon!!
• Friend Beth celebrated her 25th birthday with ice cream, sangria, and lots of shots.
• Yesterday I went to Detroit to hang out with Kyle. We went and worked out, then met up with friends in Royal Oak for dinner and a stand up comedian at The Comedy Castle. I've never been to a comedy club before (besides improv) so I wasn't sure what to expect, but this guy was hilarious! I laughed so hard that I thought my cheeks were going to cramp up. Definitely a must-do activity for those people out there who are stressed and need a mental break.

I apologize for the lack of theme to this post.....and lack of any creative aspect. I promise I'll be back to my normal blog-self as soon as I get some much needed sleep and find inspiration.