Double Dose

And I have two classes to write about this evening.

My second class last week went insanely well. As I noted, it was my fem theory class. There's a couple of folks in the class that I really enjoy and I love the professor. She's really enthusiastic, helpful and just generally full of knowledge and support. She'll push us, but you'll want to do well only because she's just that good. I really think she'll be able to help me hammer out the theory portion of my thesis, as well as advise me on how to go about getting a thesis advisor.

It really got me jazzed up for the remainder of this semester and all the fun I'll be having.

And then there were three. This evening was my third class. Technically first if you're looking at it from a week to week point of view. It's my research methods class. First of all, qualitative not quantitative. For those of you who might wonder what the difference is - it means I don't have to do math - which is good. Me trying to do math at this point in my life would be just the biggest joke. But I was still concerned that this would be my hardest and most boring class. It turns out, it just might not be. And not only that, but it will provide me my research proposal toward my thesis.

Follow me?! Three classes and two of them will provide me huge portions of my thesis. Already!!!

Which is great as the other night I was speaking to one of the second years and she mentioned that if I should want to go onto a PhD, I should aim to be published by mid year next year. This will certainly immeasurably help in that goal.

Overall, there will, of course, be some downs this year, but right this second... things are going great. I couldn't ask for more from my classes or professors.

And now for the big news.

I am...

so excited for the Cal-MD game this weekend!!! I'll be going to the pre-tailgate party thrown at UCDC by the DC Cal Alum to start the weekend off right. Just to share the pure insanity that is me when it comes to Cal, and Cal football, I have a date that night. I told him either he comes with me or we'll have to reschedule. He chose to come. Aaaahhh, I do so love converting folks into Bear fans. Then Saturday will be gameday, which, of course, I am going to. I talked June into coming with me, so that will be incredibly exciting to say the least. June is a gal who lives in my building who also grew up in LA and also went to Cal. Talk about a small world!

I'll keep you updated on the weekend when the time comes.

Until then...

GO BEARS!!!

Class?! Finally!

Last night was the first night of classes of the Fall 2008 semester. It was my Women and the Law class.

To start: yesterday was spent a bit nervous. I was wondering why I would leave a up and coming career to come back to school... regardless of the fact that PR was simply not something I wanted to spend the remainder of my life doing. This is a lot of money, a big move and for... a Masters in a subject I've never even taken a class in.

But... of to class I went. And really enjoyed it. We had reading due (yes, for the first class), so I did my reading out of a very large book. I wander down the stairs, into a room (not classroom per se) and we end up with only five students in class. Excellent!!! At Cal, we had discussion sections upward of 40 people. Finally, an opportunity to engage in intellectual discourse surrounding a text.

Tonight is class #2. It's my Fem Theory class. So if my next blog involves man-hating, man-bashing dialogue, don't be overly surprised.

Cal Bears Football

I had a glorious evening last night. I joined up with the Cal Alum at the Sign of the Whale in DC - rather close to where I live.

Why would I do this you ask?

To watch our first football game of the season of course!

They were loud, obnoxious and seriously fun. The bar was PACKED with Cal fans and that just made it incredible. It was like being back in Memorial Stadium... but not.

We sang Cal songs (I need to brush up - how could I forget the drinking song?! Maybe I wasn't drunk enough... Mom will be happy about that...), ate wings, drank beer and delighted in a Bear win over the Michigan State Spartans.

I even met up with somebody I haven't seen in years! He and I kept looking at each other, wondering, knowing we somehow know each other, but... so we started chatting and realized we were in CalSERVE together (party/activist group on campus). So we're going to go ahead and be nutty together at games as we're both rather effusive people.

Upshot is: viewing parties are going to be awesome and I think this joining of the Cal Alum will work out quite well.

GO BEARS!!!

One week...

Until the impending doom of school.

I'm kidding! I am looking forward to it immensely. I've been dragging my feet a bit since my mother left a week and a half ago, being a lazy bum and getting very little done. I finally got off my rear-end, am at Starbucks (gee, how things change...) and taking a break from, gasp, working!

My apartment is actually set up! Well, ok, I'll tell the truth. MOSTLY set-up (my mother is going to cry when she reads that line). I'm still finishing up little things, like getting out my change of address cards, which, of course, take up the entire floor of my living room... or should they not? ;)

In the next few weeks, things I need to remember to get. Real spoons. This might seem odd, but all of my spoons are MASSIVE. It's rather difficult to eat cereal and yogurt with oversized spoons, so I am rather looking forward to having a normal sized utensil. Blank cd's to save work on - new computer means I'd like to not plug up the hard drive too soon. I'm sure there were a couple of other things - but I've promptly forgotten, me being me.

My first half day alone after taking mom to the airport brought a wonderful experience... I had food poisoning. Welcome to DC! Two days later, I proceed to trip up a set of marble stairs. My left knee now looks like somebody took a bat to it. Clearly, I am proceeding with my usual grace and elegance.

I'm starting to meet people, make friends, do things. Since I've been here, I've been to an O's game (Orioles... Major League Baseball...), been to Wolftrap (an outdoor music venue) where I saw a compilation of performers singing music off the Beatles Sgt. Pepper album and found the DSW! Was I ever excited to find that! Of course, that was at the end of a rather uneventful date and, clearly, the highlight of the evening (not that it wouldn't be the highlight any other time of course).

All in all, things are rolling along and any concerns any of us may have had, are going to waste (luckily!)

Now back to work, study for my personal training exam (I'm not sure I'll be ready by Friday... whoops) and hanging out in my lovely little apartment that is MOSTLY picked up.

And yes, I've been a delinquent working out too. Maybe it's time to stop being a delinquent. Yes, mom, that includes erasing that MOSTLY and saying my apartment is as neat as a whistle.

Until we meet again through the wonderful world of on-line blogging,

Keep the peace.

Moving Day and On

Talk about the pain in the ass of the century. The stuff was heavy, dad and I both managed to drop stuff on us and talk about missing Mikey and Dan both. They would have been insanely helpful.

I may be going into Women's Studies, but now I realize the use of men - grunt work.

Since moving day, the apartment has been mostly put together. We've made more trips to Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond and Best Buy than I really want to remember. Once everybody's gone and I'm able to just settle, I'm sure I'll get a much better sense of how I feel about this whole situation. Until then though, it's all rather discombobulated and confusing.

I will say that I feel like a human being again. I got my hair done, got my nails back on and talk about the wonders of these two small acts. Everything is just a little bit better now.

Today is a day for buying a new camera (again), doing some work (under deadline), studying and getting things ready to send out. Mom wants to see Mama Mia, so that will be on tap for today as well.

This week will be spent starting to get into the swing of things, mom will be here until Thursday, so my actual routine will start next week.

Until then... I'll be back when there's more to report and when I can figure out how to add pics to share.

Drive Day #4

It's been a few days since I have seen the inside of a car for a long-distance trip - which I am forever grateful for. I've needed these days to get over the drive and distance.

Day 4 was relatively uneventful. We left super late, only to realize my mother left her flat-iron in Nashville and I left my brand-new camera in Nashville (talk about painful and talk about a breakdown). There will be a letter written to the hotel as the person who cleaned our room clearly did not have the integrity to return our products, which would have been appropriate.

Regardless, what's done is done. Everybody made it safe and sound and we cannot ask for much more.

Drive Day #3

I am finally writing at the end of the day!!! Go figure that I can finally make this happen.

Truck incident number three is an UPS truck essentially cutting me off and almost running me off the road. I royally disliked UPS to begin with, I now REALLY don't like them. Therefore, I'll stick with FedEx.

The ride itself was uneventful. We went straight through Arkansas (lots of... land...) and into Tennessee. A funny town in TN? Bucksnort in Hickman County. I kid you not.

Dad has been quite excited because he discovered what Mom and I call the NASCAR trick. He tucks in behind a truck going 75 mph (which is all he can go in his little Penske truck), and gets great mileage because he sits in the draft of the truck. I'm not entirely certain of the dynamics of how this all works, but finally Dad watching all those races counts for something.

We ended up in Nashville. My mom's cousin and her husband drove down from Kentucky to visit us and it was quite enjoyable. We went wandering through downtown and took tons of funny pictures (not all on my camera). As soon as I can get pictures uploaded... and can figure out how to post them here... then I'll share. Me in a cowboy hat is oh so sexy... really... heck, even I don't believe myself. I had a great time going through all the stuff and had much fun laughing. It was fun being a tourist. I got a Christmas present for a friend and a couple of souvenirs for myself, including two pairs of cowboy boots! No, they're not the bright red, pointy toe kind. They're MUCH more sedate, but still look great under a pair of jeans and Dad swears that they're all I'll wear in the winter. Excellent!

I'm looking forward to finishing this drive up. While we've had some excellent times, I'm ready to get there and get this party started.

And my butt will thank me upon arrival I'm sure.