The weekend, plus some before

So Eric chided me about writing about the weekend so I guess I should get to it! But really I could probably go back a little further. So let's go back to Saturday the 16th. That morning I headed off to Chicago to pick up my parents. It rained their first day there so we stuck around and went to the Field Museum where we saw the Early America exhibit, Pirates, and the dinosaurs. Then we drove back to Milwaukee, saw a little of the city and ate at Trocadero. Sunday morning was Graduation, which was lovely though the speaker went on a bit. Then lots of pictures and off to Mader's for brunch. My parents are buffet brunch fans and I am a fan of going to buffets at restaurants that have food that I don't really know well, then you can get an understanding of what is what and what you like. Like the Indian restaurant: they have a great buffet with stuff I would probably not order off the menu but now I know that I like it so I can order it in the future... or just go to the buffet! Ryan, however, is not adventurous in food so it was amusing. Anyway, it was a good time. After a little digestion and changing time, the parents and I went to the Harley Davidson Museum which was pretty cool. I didn't know any of the history and of course seeing all the old bikes is interesting. We did attend a very horrible little talk about the bricks on the outside of the building. The content was good and I learned from it, but the presentation was deplorable. After our visit to the gift shop we drove around the city a little more and then went to Alterra at the Lake, which is pretty cool and the parents liked it. What is there not to like about it? It is in a cool building, has greenness outside, and a lake across the road. We ran into Brian and his family there, which I had a feeling we would though he lives in Whitefish Bay so there was really no reason to expect it (an example Ryan). After getting caffinated we came to my apartment and hung out for a while. My dad offered to help pack but I decided against it as I wasn't ready for it. Then Dad wanted something to eat so we went to California Pizza Kitchen where no one wanted to wait on us, which got comical after a while. But we finally ate and it was good. I took Mom and Dad back to their hotel and went to bed myself. On Monday I picked them up and we went to the Pabst mansion which was really a cool place. I recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. It was perfect for my parents as it only took about an hour which was good for my dad and involved an old house which was good for my mom. It reminded my mom of one of the houses she grew up in. They are trying to refurbish the place which isn't easy and takes a lot of money. Especially since the Milwaukee Diocese bought the place and sold all the furnishings so they are trying to get them back or buy similar items. After our experience at Pabst we met Eric at Fugyama for half-price sushi lunch. There was a lot of sushi consumed and it was good. With full bellies all four of us got into my car and headed to the O'Hare. I think this was the heaviest my car has ever been with four big adults and a full trunk, but we made it just fine. On the way back Eric and I took a walk through Gurnee Mills and didn't find what we wanted so we stopped in Kenosha too. Then I was starving so we went to Olive Garden where I ate salad and breadsticks and three bites of my entree. Starving, I say. Wednesday Eric came grocery shopping with me and then I had my House Cooling Party which was fun and entertaining. People came, people left, people came, people told funny stories, we band geeked out, bonded over memories of Jars of Clay "Flood," and killed three bottles of wine, since that is all I had. I should have made margaritas.

I have been working on a grant funded project this semester so I got some work on that done and applied for a lot of jobs. Friday evening Eric and I made Pho for dinner which was fantastic, much better than I expected. Later we went to celebrate Guy's birthday at Buffalo Wild Wings and then back to Guy and Bridget's place for margaritas, Wii oddness, and drum corp videos. Saturday Eric and I actually made it to Kilties practice on time for once! I had a ton of clothes on by managed to take some of them off over the course of the day- yipee- and get started on my tan for the year. We had dinner at Infusino's with 17 other people! Crazy! On Sunday we did more practice which we made it to again on time... wow a streak! After practice we headed back to Milwaukee to rescue Eric's friend from a wedding at the Art Museum. Wish we could have gone to the wedding. We took her to Water Buffalo and talked for a while. Monday had us in Racine by 8:15 am... I am amazed. We marched in the parade- yay! I love a parade! We then went to the mall and walked around for a bit before we headed to Greg and Missie's party where we stayed for 10 hours! A lot of people graced that party and a lot of food was consumed. Games were played. It was a fun time with a bunch of fun people! Tuesday I pretty much stayed put to recover from the weekend- it was quite a lot of running around- outside for over ten hours three days in a row. Great time. And now I am back to the grind of finishing the grant work, and trying to find a job and a new place to live though I can stay here through the end of June.

Falling into the abyss/pool

I am suffering the post- whatever blahs. This past semester I managed to finish my thesis when the situation looked like such a thing was going to be near impossible. It happened fast, indeed. And now I am on the other side of it. I graduated. I finished the thesis, I defended it, I bound it, and submitted it to the department. I walked at graduation, got a nifty hood and a folder for my diploma, whenever it arrives. I am done. But for what? What comes next? What is my next challenge?

In these blahs, that I knew without question would surface, I am thankful to have friends who can pop in to drag me out. As I was walking to school today I got a text message which did the trick in dragging me out of my doldrums.

Tomorrow night is the House Cooling Party. I am working on the menu and considering all that needs to get done tomorrow... maybe I will get going on that tonight! I am excited that many people are coming, but the number of people with restricted diets has multiplied so that will require some creativity.

It's Friday and I am Fried

I bet that title means to some something other than what I intend but at this point I do not care. It is Friday, I am tired, it has been quite a week.

Tuesday, of course, was the big day: I defended my thesis and I passed. I thought I would be elated or happy or something of that sort, but not really. This could be because of the work that still needs to be done on my thesis. It would be okay if it was an add this, take out this sort of thing, instead I am charged with a rewrite of a large portion using a different sort of language- acktdhabrahbbbb! Different sort of language?!! Yuck. So I am not done and making very slow progress because I practiced that language I was using before pretty hard. And so I am also still stressed about the whole thing, thus not sleeping well, thus tired, thus not thinking clearly, thus not writing clearly, thus not getting it done. And there is plenty else to do like find a job and a place to live. To that end I have sent emails, filled out applications, sent CV's, and sent inquiries. I also took money out of my mutual funds so I don't bounce checks and/or run out of money and I am not happy about having to do so.

I went out on Tuesday night with several people to celebrate my successful defense and Cinco de Mayo at the same time. A margarita and a bunch of Mexican food left me super full. It was a good time.

So it is Danny Gokey Day here in Milwaukee. I am not sure if the mayor or anyone else decided this, but FOX certainly did. I think it would be interesting, considering last week the governor and the mayor were giving press conferences about Swine Flu, for this week the topic of a press conference to be Gokey Day. I digress. They are having a big pep rally at Summerfest Grounds. Apparently I decided not to go and am instead writing this in my office after attending a colloquium here in Sociologyland. But the Bucks Wild peeps are performing at the shindig and were supposed to go on about 45 minutes ago (3:00), though the FOX people said the gates opened at 4:15. Not real sure what the story is, but I am sure I will hear about it later.

This weekend brings yet another weekend of Kilties in my life. We are supposed to put the first and second movements on the field, but the weather is supposed to be bad tomorrow. Who knows what is going to happen? I don't. Hopefully we will make good progress, have a good time, and everyone will maintain a positive attitude. I so long for the days when I showed up, did my stuff and went home without all the excess drama and gossip. It would be particularly easy this year, being in the Guard, to be completely oblivious to everything going on in the rest of the corp. I just need some more energy to make it through the weekend without dying!

Now, pretty much everyone is gone from the department so I think I will go home soon. My apartment is a disaster area, the dishes seem to be mutiplying. But in all reality lots of dishes are what you get when you take on multiple cooking projects. I also have a mountain of laundry. All this needs to be get cleaned up as my place will be shown this weekend. Then it needs to stay clean because Mom and Dad are coming next weekend when I will be graduating. Can't believe that is coming up next weekend- time is flying.

Orange Creamcicle Margaritas are good

Not too many people comment on my blogs which sometimes makes me sad. But then I am made aware of the fact that people are in fact reading my blogs. What is odd is that males tend to read and comment via other than posted comments like calling me or mentioning something in conversation while females actually write comments. I will think on that further and come up with some kind of far reaching sociological explanation... or not. Anyway, Eric and Ryan sometimes read and make comments. But yesterday I got a phone call from the friend in Seattle.... he says I am in the good (I think I meant to write good graces but oh well you all got the gist... these mistakes are what happen when I go without an editor!) and that I made a wise choice. I was actually kind of shocked to get the phone call as I had not anticipated a phone call being generated by the post.

In other news, my ex called yesterday to tell me that all is going super fantastically well with he and his new girlfriend and they are "talking about things that people our age talk about when they are in a serious relationship." Two months people, they have been dating two months. It is never easy to hear that from your ex, no matter what. Ryan tried hard to talk me off the ledge ... they are of different religions they have to gauge if this is going to work at all... what will the wedding look like.. church or temple or outside or what? Wait, I know the answers to all those questions.

Amber and I just practiced some weapons. Baby steps in the weapon world for me.... those things are dangerous!!

Now I must grade some of my students' Methodology-s, write a program evaluation, and prepare the outline for my defense. Other people practiced their defense.... based on the lectures I have been to in the last month given by world renowned scholars, such preparation is not professional. ;)

Ah-la-la-la-la-le-lu-ah and the phone story

Two weekends now I went to Oregon/Washington for Kim's wedding. It was a good time. I got to stay in a hotel and got a good amount of work done on my thesis. I think this is a useful thing for me to know- I get a lot of writing done in a hotel room. Expensive way to get writing done, but I will store that knowledge for later. I also got to see Amanda and her boyfriend, Scott, while there and that was good as well. What I did not do, and will pay for a while for, is call another friend I have who lives in Seattle- only a two hour drive away. He is not very happy with me as a result of my failure to call. This is because he (like me, actually) is the kind of person who will drive two hours to and from a place to meet someone and hang out for 15 minutes. I did feel bad about not making the call as I had previously mentioned him possibly coming to the wedding with me. But as it turned out I flew in Friday night and out Sunday morning and I had a thesis that needed to be done by the next Tuesday. Knowing if I called he would certainly come down and that I would feel bad cutting the visit short I didn't call. Unfortunately this did not go undetected as Amanda then went up to Seattle and visited with him and there was no hiding that I had been in the region. I got a phone call the next Sunday while I was at Kilties that totally called me out. I apologized but I don't think I am back in the good. Meanwhile, when I got back I had to deal with Ryan who was not at all happy to drive down to get me from O'Hare. Pretty sure my friend from Seattle would have picked me up from O'Hare if he could.

I guess I can say this: my thesis defense is scheduled for Tuesday. I would like to say that my thesis is done, but I don't know if this is the case as it is likely to see revision before it is signed and submitted to the department. My committee has a copy of the monster but I have made some changes since that copy. I am looking at family structure and I defined it as single parent, two biological parent, or other. In my initial analysis I used other as the comparison category but that doesn't actually tell us much. It didn't occur to me until I was talking to Eric two Thursdays ago while folding clothes that I could use single or two parent families as the comparison category and be able to say something. But this change meant a bit of work to revise the table and the text of my paper so I did that yesterday and will have to present revisions to my committee at my defense. I don't know if such a thing is typical, but it is what my adviser suggested and at this point my adviser is God of the situation- what he says goes. So it seems that this is good. I have been taking on an attitude of "don't count the eggs before they are hatched" in all things related to my thesis. I am fully aware that my committee could decide I am not done and give me a list of things that must be done which will delay my official completion. This could mean I don't actually graduate.... they are collectively God of that (hmmm.... how polytheistic of me). But I got my graduation regalia yesterday in the mail and the parents are coming to town for graduation so it appears that I am walking if nothing else.

The job search is sucking. I am frustrated by the bad application formatting and the repetition in the process. It is so hard to put effort into the applications when my experience is that few of them will even be considered. Eric applied for a job in Madison and a few days later received an email from a staffing company in Philadelphia saying that while he was qualified for the job they decided not to forward his application. Not an encouraging message to get. But of course we have no choice but to press on.

Amanda came to visit Wisconsin this week. I picked her up from the airport on Monday night. We went to lunch at Ryan's shop on Tuesday then to the Milwaukee Art Museum- I really like that place. Then her friends came and picked her up and took her to town in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin that I will not name. I guess it was not quite to her liking so she escaped and came back to Milwaukee last evening and Eric joined us for a trip to Lakefront Brewery for the tour and fish fry complete with Polka music. It was great! My second time on the tour, this one was more entertaining, and my first time at the fish fry which was yummy and fun. Will have to see about going in the summer to see the crowds. Today we got up, I made breakfast, Eric finally showed up, Amanda packed up, we went to the Public Market for a quick lap, and took Amanda to Amtrak and off she went to Chicago to meet Scott at his aunt's house in Evanston.

Aha! The phone story. This is a funny one, I think. So I have been sick this week: coughing, sneezing, nose stuffy. Went to see the doctor on Monday- no Swine Flu for me, but I was on anti-biotics that did not improve my health as quickly as they usually do. Point is I had not been sleeping as well as I might due to waking up for various reasons chief among them coughing. Well Wednesday night I settled in for some better, cough-less sleep and kept sleeping through my alarm. I didn't wake until 8:30 and needed to be in class by 9:00. I quick got up and dressed, it wasn't until I was putting on my shoes that I realized that it was raining outside. Well, at this point my only hope of making it to class on time was to ride my bike so I did that and ended up with soaked jeans by the time I arrived at school. So, being sick, I was unhappy with this (unavoidable, given my mode of transportation) outcome and I was locking up my bike which of course did not want to cooperate and I ruched to class. Well after class I was meeting with my advisor to discuss the above issue with my thesis. I returned to my office to hear that one of the department secretaries had called for me. That is odd since she would normally just walk down the hall instead of calling. So I headed back down the hall to see what she wanted and here she came down the hall. "The police called, they have your cell phone," she said. Hmmm. That's interesting I had not noticed that it was gone. So I head back into the office and call the police department as instructed. So I get on the phone with the officer who has my phone and he tells me he called my mom!!! In California!!! Immediately I am calculating what time it must have been in CA and contemplating the fact that I got tattled on. "She didn't want to talk to me at first," the officer tells me. "But when I told her who I was, who I work for, she was more willing." I bet! As it turned out it wasn't until about 10:30 Milwaukee time, 8:30 CA time that this all took place so my mom was at a school and was not happy to be on the phone because that doesn't look good. So the police officer on the phone asks me a bunch of questions: my address, office phone, office number, so forth. Then I hang up, tell my office mates the deal and resume what I was doing on the computer. The office phone rings, I answer, and it is my father!! Letting me know that the police have my phone. "Thanks, Dad," I say and hang up. My office mates are laughing, "Was that really your Dad?!" Yes, yes it was. So I got my phone back and all is back to normal-ish.... I mean as normal as my life gets.