Flying...

Why did Brandon have to fly home from Russia the day after a major terrorism plot was uncovered? He has begun his four flight trek home (assuming he was able to make it through security in time to get on the plane) so I REALLY hope that he makes all of his connections and I can wrap my arms around him at the Sac airport tomorrow night!!

Post Graduate Life

As the title may suggest, this is not an exciting topic. Post graduate life, I mean, there isn't much to say. I think the change I have noticed so far is that since graduating in May people keep asking "how's your summer going?" What summer, I think to myself? This is the saddest thing about adulthood. Unless you become a teacher (oh, how happy that would make my dad), you don't have a summer. So my summer? Well I have gone to work everyday - except on July 3 and 4. That was a nice holiday. And even though I have worked every summer since I started college, I have always had the flexibility to say "I am going to England for three weeks" or "I can only work 4 days a week." Now, I can't complain too much because the salary (happily not working for free or for minimum wage) and benefits (which were non-existent) are much better when you don't have this freedom. But it still takes some getting used to.

And I can still take little trips here and there. In a few weeks I will be heading down south to my college roommates wedding which I can't wait for! In September I will be taking a weekend trip to LA which, albeit quick, will be a nice get away.

So, while I may need to wait awhile before I can take a three week European vacation again and may never have a 3-4 day a week job, life is good. Maybe a little different, but I suppose we all need a change every now and again.

Graduation 2006

It is amazing to think about how much life can change in only a few years. Looking back six years at my high school graduation I can remember being anxious to get on my way to college, to life in LA, to an idea of independence I had been craving for years. I was thrilled at the prospect of making new friends in a new place. And even though I cried when my parents left me in my dorm room in Desmond in August 2000, it was tears of change more than anything else.

College graduation in 2004 left me facing a new challenge - life back in Northern California, single and still unsure what I wanted out of my future. When I left my apartment in LA on May 14, 2004 it took everything in me not to burst into tears. I was leaving the life I had known for the last four years for a new unknown. This was a change that I hadn't spent my life planning for like going to away college. In a lot of ways I felt like I was starting over in a lot of ways.

And now that I will be awarded my Masters Degree tomorrow it's so strange to look back and see all that I have done in the last two years and how different my life is than it was in 2000 or even in 2004. During these years I have created a home in a new place, found new friends, traveled to England, Scotland, Los Angeles and Washington DC, made my way through a new academic program and crafted a 311 page thesis (okay, okay 250 pages were appendices but still I can brag!). And on top of it all, I was lucky enough to reconnect with a man who has become a supportive and loving partner.

I suppose that this is one of those points in life when I need to stop and be thankful for how blessed I have been.

THESIS COMPLETE!

Today I got the final signature and submitted my thesis. That's right, it's done with and out of my hands. I am so done! So please indulge my selfcongratulatory moment.

Yippee!!

This seriously may be one of the greatest moments in my life so far. I can't believe I am going to get a Master's Degree. Who'd have thunk it?

Update 5.1.06

Let's see, I have been at my new job for two full weeks and I really like it. The people in the office are really friendly and relaxed and they have been flexible about school conflicts during the first few weeks. I have been very busy so the days are passing a lot faster than at my old job and that is really helpful. Even though I am working five days instead of three, it doesn't feel like that much longer. Except that four day weekends are definitely longer than two day weekends :)

Another positive is that I picked up my thesis from both readers last week and they approved it! Now a copy has been printed on insanely expensive paper and I will start gathering signatures tomorrow. When I get the last one Thursday I plan to submit the entire thing immediately afterward and what a relief that will be!

There are still a few more things on my plate including my presentation on Monday and graduation itself, but soon I will be able to go to work and come home and not have anything else on my mind. It will be fantastic - at least, for awhile. I am sure i will get bored eventually and wish I was in school again, but right now I am looking forward to a break.

A Little Good and So Much Bad

The last few days have been interesting to say the least. Last Tuesday marked my last day as a graduate assistant at the office I had been working at during the last year and a half. I was able to spend Wednesday, Thursday and Friday working to complete my thesis, which I am happy to say I did! On Friday I was able to make my last batch of corrections, print it out and make an additional copy. It was such a relief to know that I will be able to submit it to my two readers this week. This should provide enough time for them to make any suggestions, for me to make those changes and then to make the final submission by May 12. Having the two copies in hand is a great relief, hopefully the next few steps will go smoothly.

There's the good.

The bad of the weekend was the nasty stomach flu or food poisoning I was hit with Friday night. I have never been so ill. Between 6 pm and 12 am I threw up 8 or 9 times, by the last round there was nothing left in my poor little tummy so I got my first experience with the very painful dry heaving. To top it off I was concurrently experiencing additional stomach problems. I am sure that no more detail need be given. Thank goodness I was at my parents house and not at my apartment. They were awesome about taking care of me, something that a person crawling from their make shift bed in the hall to the bathroom all night can't really do for themselve to well...

On top of feeling totally pathetic and super sore (my back and abs are still killing me!) I was stressed that I would still feel sick on Monday when I start my new job. Fortunately now that it is Sunday evening, I am beginning to feel more like myself again. Hopefully a good nights sleep will leave me well prepared for tomorrow.

Why no one should work alone, Part I

Yesterday was a hectic day at the office. There are only three full time staff members and me. Making it more complicated the administrative person (who is full time) only works here half a day and works across the hall half the day, so sometimes we are stretched pretty thin.

Well, my supervisor called in sick yesterday and long story short I was in the office pretty much alone from 1:30 until 4. All was going well, I had a couple of phone calls but nothing major and then this older white guy walked in. So I got up and went into the main portion of our office to help him. He said he wanted to know about the graduate diversity program - so I handed him the list of grants we give out each year and said that most of the deadlines had passed, but he could try again next year, once he had been accepted into a MA program. Then he very unclearly asked me about the guidelines for getting these awards and I explained that they were mainly ethnic and socio-economic. At this point he asked me something which I totally didn't understand and I told him I didn't know what he was saying. So he asked me "well, does being a felon recently released from prison affect qualifying for these awards?"

WHAT?!?

That's right. A felon. And not just a felon, but one RECENTLY released. It continued to get worse when I told him that I was unsure how that affected his standing, but he could email or call the woman in charge of the program. He said that he didn't have a computer so email wouldn't be possible. I helpfully suggested he go to the library and use a computer there and he said, "but if she isn't here and i send her an email aren't I going to be sitting there for a long time waiting to hear back from her?" To which I suggested he return the next day or the day after that to check his message. "Oh, it will be saved inside the computer?"

Wow. Clearly this guy was away for quite sometime, making me increasingly less comfortable being alone with him. I know that a felony could be a lot of things, some non-violent. But a felony that keeps you in prison so long that you not only don't have email, but you don't even understand how it works??

After the email discussion he finally left, and unfortunately I have to say that this is only one of my examples of why people shouldn't be left in an office alone...