A week in the life...

this week has begun the trend my days being more and more work and less and less life. but, it's not like we didn't see that coming, right? there have been a few events of note. the first is that i went to amy's place for dinner this week. i think she's lived there for almost a year now and i've never seen it. it's actually really, really cute little place just up the road in lemont. it was a good time, except that i've noticed that amy's neighbor amanda isn't in any of our pictures as she became the self-appointed photographer. so, you'll see me, harmony (who i think is in her 3rd year of the child clinical program) and amy post pizza and all weirdly sweaty looking. i guess i'll be checking that setting on my camera. amy did get a little container of pastries that functioned as a belated birthday "cake." it was actually very cute and much appreciated. (the "9" candle is invisible, for those of you who are wondering if amy & co. actually thought i was turning 2.

seeing amy's cute, all-hardwood-floor place made me think a bit about where i might be living in another year. in an ideal world, i would hit on my grant the first try, but this ideal world is not really realistic. (as in, i could probably double my odds by simultaneously playing the lottery). so, it could be here - it could be long island - it could be at home after my spirits are crushed by my dissertation study and grant-writing experience. in any case, i hope that i can get rid of a bunch of my stuff so that i don't have to carry it around with me. let's be honest - that's the real concern about moving, right? i'm to lazy to actually DO it.

i know what you're all wondering at this point (or at least one of the things that you're wondering). how on EARTH did i get to amy's place? well, have no fear - my car is fixed! yes, new tires were in place on tuesday and don't they look sharp? you'll also notice (i'm sure), the new windshield wiper blade on the passenger's side (thanks again to the guy at NAPA with a broken hand for insisting that i couldn't change that on my own. i mean...thanks and also i'm kind of insulted). you might also noticed that i washed some of the yuck off of it (i say some only because some of it was reeeealllly on there). i figured i should since it was a 40-degree day and also because i was clearly in the car-repair mode. it's pretty much a whole new vehicle.

last night was the holiday lab party for jenae's lab. jenae is my secondary mentor on the training grant. her specialty is developmental behavioral genetics, and i'm working (very, very slowly) with her on a project looking at how the degree to which kids who are at risk for anxiety might be affected by their ability to control their attention (the rationale is that anxious individuals typically have a bias to attend to the things that make them anxious). anyway, we met last night for a few drinks, some talk, and a gift exchange. jenae has a really nice bunch of people working for her and, despite hating getting her picture taken, was a really good sport about letting me ask a woman to take a picture of the lab for us. i told her she could feel free to stick out her tongue if she wanted - as it's not like a have an enormous following for my blog. she didn't take me up on it this time, but she did go with a sly, almost suspicious-looking smile, which i'm enjoying.

not much is on the books this week except for working on a few papers and trying to get some more families scheduled to come in for my dissertation. it would be nice if kids were turning 4 1/2 a bit more quickly but i don't want to jump the gun to such an extent that i handicap anyone in what they're doing.

also, i know nobody really cares about this except for my dad and i, but did people see that penn state got beat by iowa today? as much as i want to be optimistic as a hawkeye fan, there's a good part of me that's sort of thinking, "wow. . .penn state is even worse than i thought they were going to be this year." or maybe iowa is just some sort of weird plague for them. maybe some iowan somewhere has a weird little penn state voodoo doll. whatever. a win's a win, right? i don't expect any basketball championships in iowa city anytime soon, but if they want to win a few games here and there, i'm totally fine with that (and feel comfortable saying that jill parsons probably is as well).

okay, back to the weekend workload. although if you want to take a minute and listen to this adorable song that matt showed me while he was here before Christmas, i can almost guarantee that it will brighten your day. (karen, if you still check this from time to time, i insist that you listen to it. it's too cute not to.)