Say goodbye

While I doubt anyone actually reads this anymore, I needed to post one last time, just for some personal closure. 

Blogging was a really great (cheap) therapy for me while I was in grad school.  It helped me express my frustrations and recognize the joyous moments in my life, which made the frustrations seem not so bad!  I wrote for myself and truly enjoyed it.

For various reasons, blogging has no longer provided me that outlet.  Mainly, some of the things I am struggling with and some of the things I have celebrated are just too personal to share on a public blog.  So, it's time to leave the blogosphere for now. 

I've always felt like the odd-one.  I still do, but I am still convinced it's not such a bad thing to be "odd". 

Thanks all!

Will return?

Obviously, it's been a crazy bunch of months!

Since May, I have:

• Finished my PhD
• Started a new job
• Moved to a new apartment
• Enjoyed a long commute to and from work everyday
• Made it through my first semester as a professor (almost ... have till the 22nd!)
• Planned a wedding (almost ...)

Somehow, that leaves little time for blogging!

Maybe I'll be back soon ... or maybe we'll start a new blog after the wedding!

I'll keep ya posted ... eventually!

It's test week

And I am amazed by the students.  The audacity, the excuses, the poorly written emails.

Also amazed that one of my classes did really, really well.  And the others weren't totally horrible.

I am sure next week will be full of tears from students and emails from "higher-ups" about me being so mean.

Oh well.

Inevitability

Sickness is pretty much a guarantee for all teachers.  That many hours with that many kids ... you're gonna catch something.

You think as a college professor, I'd be less likely to get sick than a kindergarden teacher.  But college students are probably a lot more likely to show up to class sick than 4-year-olds.  There isn't a mommy to tell the college kid to stay home. 

So, just 2 weeks in to my first semester as a college professor and I got a head cold.  Lame.

Monday = Payday

Nope.  I don't mean I get paid on Mondays.

I mean I pay for the fact that I didn't do work all weekend.  With a 9:30am-4:50pm solid block of teaching.  That's right, over 7 straight hours of teaching. 

Not that I can really do work on the weekends to reduce my Monday work load.  But I will definitely further enjoy my work-free weekends knowing what is going to hit me on Mondays!

Work-less weekends?

I have hardly ever worked less on a weekend.

I only did about an hour of work this weekend. 

And not just because we were busy with family and friends (we were),  but because there wasn't too much work that I HAD to get done by Monday morning.  Sure, I could have prepared ahead, but I didn't HAVE to. 

This is in stark contrats to my life as a grad student.  I usually worked a whole lot every weekend.  Either in the lab (because fish don't know the difference between Saturday and Wednesday), or writing at home.  Or doing some stupid thing that I got roped in to doing that wasn't really required of me.

I like my new job.

And I figure next year will be even easier than this!

Yay!

New (school) Year Resolution!!!!

Stop putting so many exclamation points in professional emails!

(I find that I punctuate far more with exclamation points than periods or question marks!)

First day!!!

I might have been working here all summer, but I feel like today is my first official day!

It's the start of my first fall semester as a professor!!!


This morning's 7:15am conversation with Boss:

Boss:  "Good morning.  You excited?"

Me: "GOOD MORNING!  Yes, I am soooo excited."

Boss: "Oh, yeah, me too.  So excited.  Wait .... you really are excited aren't you?"

Me: "Yes!!!  I really am!!"

Boss: "Sigh."

Me: "I baked you an apple pie."

And so the semester begins ......