I did a thing

Reviving a long dead blog to say this: I did a thing... I got a PhD! Five days ago I successfully defended my dissertation. It doesn't quite feel real yet.

addictive stashing

Hello, my name is Emily and I am a yarnaholic. Please do not get me wrong, I am not poking fun at AA or NA members. I am just trying to come to terms with the fact that I have a problem - I feel like I am buying yarn somewhat compulsively. Why? It is soothing I guess; the past two years have been enormously stressful and I seem to have responded to that stress by buying yarn. It is true that it isn't booze or drugs or boxes of twinkees/pints of Ben & Jerrys, but I can't help wonder why I am stress-buying yarn. Just for the sake of being honest, I have (according to ravelry's handy stash tool) a little over 112 miles of yarn to knit. Writing that made my chest tighten up a little. (btw - I live in an apartment in NYC, so not a huge amount of storage space) I think i need to find a new outlet for my stress...

Finally settling in, maybe

I am a graduate student (PhD student heading into my 2nd year) preparing for a life in academia. Yes, I know the odds and I know the dismal hiring picture at universities these days. I know that I spent nights last year crying, convinced I was in the wrong department, wrong university, in the wrong field, in the wrong life altogether. That view was reinforced when there was a little snafu and my scholarship acceptance had never been processed - they told me everything was fine, but one day I get a bill from the university for nearly $20,000 (for a single term) and when I called the appropriate office I was told that "they had never heard back from me and the money had gone to someone else." Good thing I responded via email and cc'ed several people in my department. Thankfully, that has been resolved. Anyway, I have been adjunct teaching a course this summer and although I have been been in front of students loads to times (years of test prep at the Princeton Review have come in handy), this is the first time I have had my own class. I'm teaching graduate students. The experience has been challenging and some days it has been demoralizing. I always somehow feel like I am failing my students somehow, that no matter how much prep work I do, no matter how many examples I put in the lecture, I can't shake the feeling that it is somehow not enough. Anyway, today I got my peer observation report and it was overwhelmingly positive. I'm thrilled and it does go a distance to alleviating that failing feeling, but not entirely - I guess that comes with time and teaching experience. Perhaps I'll get used to the idea that some students will fail no matter how much help they are offered. Another nice thing happened today - I may join a training grant. the PI on the grant is a professor whose course I took this past term and really enjoyed. I was the only doctoral student and I may have been the only one there taking the course just out of interest. It would mean giving up my scholarship money, but since that is so anxiety-provoking, that may not be a bad thing. The training grant would cover my tuition and kick in a stipend. I think I'll be able to keep my job as well - which is good, they are in complementary areas in my field. I just submitted the application and personal statement. I feel anxious and yet relieved at the same time - no matter what happens, it is out of my hands. Now I just need to survive the next two weeks of teaching and grading. Oy, the grading. Wish me luck.

Finally on vacation

Finally took a week off.  Now what?  I have lectures to prepare, a grant propsal draft to work on, a closet that desperately needs cleaning out, a mountain of laundry that calls out to me (something about clean socks?) and a million other small things I need to get done in the next six days.  Am I going to do any of those things today?  Perhaps.  Later.  This morning I am going to see The Avengers!  I will see anything Joss Whedon does and I usually love it.  What's funny is that I realized that this will be my first time in a movie theater in about 6 years.  You didn't misread that.  6 years.  I hate the texting, talking, nextel-ing, tweeting, and the parents who bring children to inappropriate films and then fail to take the terrified/bored/cranky children outside for fear of missing a minute of movie.  So at 10am on a Tuesday, I am heading to the movies.  Wish me luck.

I'm not dead yet, in fact, I'm feeling much better

Hello, my name is Emily, and I am a bad blogger. It has been more than 3 years since I posted here. I am embarassed to admit that I needed a password reset because I couldn't even remember my login or password for this blog. In my defense, it has been an adventurous few years. I got a masters degree (MPH), got a professional job (no more jeans at work, I'm still sad about that) and was accepted into (and joined) the doctoral program (PhD) at Columbia University. I just completed my first year. So I guess I'll have to change the title of the blog, as I am no longer a would-be graduate student!

RIP John Updike

A few hours ago, I read about the passing of the author John Updike. If you haven't read him, you should. I recommend:

The Witches of Eastwick
The Widows of Eastwick (a 20 year later follow-up to The Witches of Eastwick)
The Rabbit novels

RIP

Free at last, free at last

Ok, so I am stealing a great Civil Rights phrase and using it for something silly: a [Finally] finished object:

The Crazy-making blanket (once known as the Learn To Knit Afghan) is complete. I even wove in the ends.





I think the blanket-making bug is out of my system. Unfortunately I am halfway through another blanket. (Good thing it is a cold winter!) I am halfway through with a blanket that is a combination of the Knitters squares from The Great American Afghan, The Great American Aran Afghan, The Great North American Afghan, and Vogue Stitchionary: Cables. I'm too far along to rip it out, but I don't really want to finish it either. Way to start a new year.