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.

Reliving my youth

Kyle and I went to the CCHA Hockey finals with some friends this past Saturday. It was great--we had general admission tickets, but there were so many empty seats that we moved down to row #7 right by the ice. Sweet. We collectively decided to cheer for Miami-Ohio since Matt went there and, well, we would never cheer for Michigan State. While the game was great and the company was a blast, I was frustrated by the arena music situation. Whenever play stopped for a second they'd start playing some pretty good songs, then cut it off after only a few moments when play resumed.

The end result was lots of song tid bits stuck in my head for the rest of the night. One tid bit in particular: "Cold as Ice" by Foreigner. Love it. The song reminds me of my Atlanta days of listening to 96 rock or Z93 classic rock. That and my dad playing his Foreigner tapes when I was younger. So tonight I downloaded Foreigner's "Urgent" and "Cold as Ice", then proceeded to download Journey's "Don't Stop Believin", "Separate Ways", and "Any Way You Want It". Definitely reminds me of my youth......and Caddyshack.

Remember that road trip I was planning in my mind, well I think I've started piecing together a great soundtrack and some future karyoke selections ;-)

I'm a happy girl :)

I'm a happy girl because:

• My boyfriend is a ton of fun: CCHA hockey finals, dinner, Greektown, friends, funny rap songs.
  
• The weather has been beautiful!
  
• My drive to work out has been rekindled.....mainly due to previous bullet.
• I've stopped worrying about the whole PhD thing and decided to just let things lie where they fall. (no definitive word after the open house on Friday).
• I'm almost a graduated student, which means SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE!!
• Spring/summer is almost here: mountain biking, swimming, going to the lake, road trips, NO STUDYING.

Life is good......just as long as I finish my thesis......

tossin' and turnin'

I've been in bed for about an hour now (well, technically now I'm sitting at my computer). 10:30's early, right? I know! I was tired and have an early morning so I figured I'd go to sleep. I started to do a little reading, but couldn't concentrate. Then I tried to sleep and my mind was racing. Then I busted out my handy "relax and go to sleep" CD, but not even "John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman" can help me tonight.

Why, you ask? Tomorrow is a big day. The admissions committee has given my PhD application a seal of approval and sent it out to the faculty to find a match. If a faculty member doesn't pick me up, I don't get into the program. Tomorrow is my best (and last) chance to sell myself to the profs.........

No pressure, truly.

Then there's my thesis. Still not finished, still running out of time, but still making progress.

Sleep, please find me soon so I can find some rest and have a productive day tomorrow. Love ya!

Atleast I have green beer waiting for me tomorrow night. Or it may be sangria, I really don't care at this point. I haven't had an alcoholic beverage in weeks! And that's no lie.

Saturday will be fun time with Kyle. Friends, hockey, more beverages, and some QT.

.........c'mon sleep!!!

Realization:

I'm a dork.

Just what I needed

I think it is amusing when you become bogged down by the insignificant things in a given situation. Things that may obscure the bigger picture. Or worse yet, may blind you to the truth. Whenever I would drown in the details of a situation my mom always told me to "stop fretting". I would become too wrapped up in the little insignificant aspects, things that didn't really matter, and fail to realize that I had nothing to fret about. This weekend I was reminded of how important it is to just be. Let go...stop fretting...and be.

Oh, and I also learned that dogs and swans have an odd proclivity toward chasing Kyle.....

It was a wonderful weekend :-)

a lil' bit of everything

Whew. There's a lot going on in my multi-faceted world right now. Wait. Do "student" and "student-worker" qualify as "multi-faceted"? I guess there are other layers present, like sister, aunt, daughter, granddaughter, friend, girlfriend, thesis-writer, PhD applicant, nursing school prospective student, chocolate lover, and broke-ass girl. Broke-ass as in I have no money. Ever.

The past few weeks it seems as if all of these layers have decided to vie for my attention and it's starting to stress me out a little. There are the things that I want to be doing, like spending time with my boyfriend, hanging with friends, playing with the nephew, etc. and then there are the things that are stressing me out, like having no money, writing my thesis, trying to decide what the hell I should do after I graduate (nursing school or PhD??--believe me, I'm actually stressed about the choice). Then the little things that are just THERE.......finding and reserving a place for my graduation party, preparing for graduation, paying bills, and trying to feed my chocolate addiction while broke.

But, today was a good day. I made decent progress on my thesis, I reserved a perfect room for the graduation party--and just so you friends out there know, it's a family thing that my dad's girlfriend is putting together, otherwise you'd all be invited.....the fam wants some quality time--, I'm heading to a nursing school informational meeting tomorrow, Kyle called me from the balcony of a friend's penthouse condo in Miami (how much do I wish I was there??), and I think I'm finally getting over this freakin' cold! Good times. But the best part of my day, besides hearing from Kyle (I know, I'm mushy): Google.earth finally put out a mac edition!! Oh, google.earth, how much do I love thee? I'm a travel nut. So much so that when I was little and couldn't yet reach the gas pedal, I actually poured over road maps and atlases......just to see what was out there. I love road trips. I love new places. So you can imagine how happy I was when I downloaded google.earth and went to the grand canyon, San Francisco, Miami, and Hawaii--all from the comfort of my desk chair. I know, it isn't the same as actually going to those places, but it still gives me the same happy feeling as looking at atlases, only better. I have found a new time-waster :)

Friends are back!!

Yay! After a week of friends being gone on vacation blogs are up and running again and I have been tagged......twice. Thanks to Sol and Kara I bring you the following interesting (ha) facts about me:

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. "coffee girl" at The Coffee Beanery. Free slushies!!
2. veterinary technician/assistant. Not once, but three different times: high school, college, and last year--I needed the money. :)
3. "barn girl" at Berry College. I took care of ~70 horses--that's a lot of shoveling.
4. research biologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA. Yep--I was a lab rat and got to play with some pretty scary stuff......and prairie dogs are smelly.

Four movies I could watch over and over:
1. Moulin Rouge
2. North by Northwest
3. Harry Potter (any of them)
4. The Notebook (yeah, I'm a total girl)

Four places I have lived:
1. Jacksonville, NC
2. Kenosha, WI
3. Chatham, NJ
4. Atlanta, GA

Five tv shows I love to watch:
1. 24
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Lost
4. City Confidential
5. stuff on Discovery Health Channel

Five places I have been on vacation:
1. San Francisco, CA
2. Key West, FL
3. the Grand Canyon, AZ
4. The Outer Banks, NC
5. Seattle, WA

Four websites I visit daily:
1. CNN.com
2. various blogs
3. weatherchannel.com
4. google

Four of my favorite foods:
1. CHOCOLATE
2. sushi
3. thai
4. ice cream

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Miami (with Kyle on his spring break)
2. Washington DC
3. Florence, Italy
4. Charlotte, NC visiting Katie

Four friends I am tagging that I think will respond:
1. Steph
2. Jess
3. Goat
4. random people....?


I met up with Steph tonight for a nice dinner and some catch-up time. I needed the break after working on my thesis. Today was the start of school again after spring break. And Kyle left for his spring break trip to Miami. Am I jealous? No......well, sorta. I'm jealous that he is enjoying the sun, while it snowed here today. But I'm happy that he gets a great vacation and a chance to turn off the brain for a week. I gave him my ipod full of fun music to listen to while at the beach and we picked out some non-medical books for beach reading at Boarders during a rare opportunity to simply hang out on a Saturday morning. It was great :)

I need it.

It's been way too long.
I have to go to a concert.
I need live music.....I NEED live music.

Snow for Spring Break

Ah....spring break. Historically, a week to escape the monotony of studies and prematurely induce spring fever in school kids of all ages. Today is the start of my spring break. I woke up this morning rather early for a "vacation" and looked out the window to see.....snow. Nope, I'm not in a tropical locale. Nor am I vacationing at a place where snow would be exciting and welcome--say Colorado or Canada--for skiing purposes. I'm in Ann Arbor where snow is neither exciting nor welcome, but rather dull and disappointing. This week is just like any other week for me except for not having to go to the whopping three classes I have per week. I'm still going into work and my concentration will be directed towards my thesis. Blech. I am so unmotivated! Spring fever has hit me and I'm in a town where spring is nowhere in sight. For example, I still have to finish my thesis and yet I'm daydreaming about a road trip I'd like to take this summer. Mapping out the route in my mind, where I'd like to stop, what I'd like to see, etc. but I have so much work still to do.

OK, enough bitching. I'm a big girl. I can handle the isolation. And the snow. :)