Make-up blog

as i'm grumbling about how many of my students need extensions on their homework - which i tend to give them - and what a pain that makes for grading, i realize that i'm a ridiculous amount of behind in my blogging. to my surprise, i did remember to blog about my defense, which is good. i thought i was going to have to go back to the beginning of the month and remember what i've been doing. that might have been a disaster.

i spent some time in athens right after my defense, but aside from my love of the smoked tofu sandwich at bagel street deli, there isn't really that much to report.

so the main story now then is about the savannah trip. matt and came up last weekend and spent it watching basketball with us in state college (all the brackets are totally busted by now, by the way. . . ). on tuesday, we headed to pittsburgh where we spent most of the trip to atlanta being impressed with ourselves for using our iphones as boarding passes. we didn't ever want to be snobby about these phones, but they keep allowing us to do things that are ridiculously convenient and awesome. win, win.

we probably would've spent the atlanta to savannah trip talking about this as well, except that we had something else exciting to discuss. spike lee. because he was on our freaking plan. how cool is that? he had the glasses and everything. i kind of wish that he would've been decked out in knicks gear (in the time that i thought i would be living in new york for the next three years, i developed an affinity for the knicks), but it was totally cool nonetheless. nobody had the guts to talk to him. but we all stared and whispered, of course.

the most exciting news is, of course, that on that very evening, we got engaged on the boardwalk. it was a complete and total surprise and a completely beautiful moment. a river, a sunset, 80-degree weather in march, a bench to ourselves. . . what's a girl to do. i've found that the moment feels so wonderful and so wonderfully private and personal, it's been really difficult for me to describe to anyone else. this is a problem, obviously, because everyone seems to want to hear "the story," but there's so much to it that can't be put into words, i always feel like i fail miserably when i try to tell it. but i'm super excited. i still can't believe it sometimes. i feel incredibly lucky. we pretty much spent the rest of our trip just basking in the giddyness. and enjoying a pseudo-summer at the start of spring. i loved it. all of it. and we're certain that we'll be going back. i'll be posting the rest of my pictures on facebook as soon as i get around to it. hopefully asap.

matt just left this morning and i've been trying to get caught up on my grading, an abstract submitted for a conference next fall, and just generally not fall behind before i need to pack up and leave again on tuesday. our biggest conference happens biannually and this is one of the lucky years. my friend jess and i will be driving up to montreal and meeting up with the rest of the developmental psychology gurus. . . neither one of us speaking french, of course. i am infinitely not excited about the temperature difference. savannah was almost 90 degrees the days that we were walking around. it's been in the 40s here the past couple of days. and it's supposed to be in the 30s while we're in montreal. not cool. or too cool. i guess that's more accurate. i have to say, though, that i remembered today that the last meeting (two years ago) was in denver (also cold!!) and i was slated to take my comps the day after getting back to state college. unless something goes infinitely wrong - and please pray on my behalf that it won't - this should be a gazillion times better.

so, i hope this finds everyone happy and well. and if not, i still have plenty of love and bliss to go around!

an intense day in the life of

so, i'm unofficially officially done. the dissertation defense is over and - pending some fairly minor revisions - so are the milestones that are required for me to become a degree-holding doctor. it seems like you all are pretty aware of the amount of time that was spent collecting, analyzing, and agonizing over my data, but here's how the rest of the sequence of events went.

night before: try to remain calm by preparing yet another delicious recipe from the pampered chef cookbook that dy gave me for christmas. salad with pecan-crusted mozzarella. like all of the other recipes, it was simple and delicious. lacey agreed.

morning of: get up early after barely being able to sleep anyway. head out to get some fruit, which will be the snack that i supply for my committee during the meeting (as per tradition). upon reaching the front door, i see that lacey has decorated the entire first floor with good luck well-wishes. snap a blurry picture because you're certain that the blog world will appreciate it just as much as if it was crystal clear.

seriously, how cute is she?

get dressed in very professional looking attire. head to office and begin freaking out. have freaking out temporarily halted when flowers arrive from dy wishing good luck. literally take a minute to stop and smell the roses. they smell delicious. send dy thank you. pack everything into bags and head to the psychology building.

resume freaking out when setting up the room that will house the dissertation defense. have freaking out temporarily halted when kara calls and tells funny stories about the coffee shop. spend short amount of time feeling both smart and completely sane relative to some of kara's coffee shop customers. resume freaking out.

start dissertation defense at 1pm on the dot. answer many questions about how i interpret my findings. try to explain how i am advancing the fields of developmental neuroscience and developmental psychology. become engaged in conversational musings about what more research should be doing. make occasional snotty comments about my disappointing grant score. actually begin to enjoy talking to committee members about what i want to do as a researcher. am shocked when the entire time has gone by and the committee sends me out of the room to discuss how i've done.

return to room. be congratulated and hugged by almost every committee member. become too stunned to react. clean things up and head home.

at home find that lacey has redecorated our place - replacing good luck wishes with congratulations. take pictures of decorum and aforementioned flowers which i have not yet uploaded to my computer.

celebrate by going to the autoport for spicy black bean dip (although am almost convinced by mom to go instead to olive garden). go to the basketball game and receive free tickets to watch psu get their world rocked by ohio state. react with more surprise to the apparent '80s fashion phenomenon that has begun in state college than to the progression of the game. continue to be awed by the fact that 15,000 people attend the game. remark repeatedly that the bjc has never been so full during a basketball game. wonder briefly how jared sullinger got to be so ridiculously tall. quickly become bored with this impossible task and return to watching game. leave during the fourth quarter when penn state is behind by more points than they have scored.

which almost brings me to now. i had a few things to do yesterday before heading to ohio to spend the rest of the week working in coffee shops and matt's apartment. this is a ready break from the past couple of months. next week is technically penn state's spring break. this has typically meant nothing to me, but this week that means i will extend my stay in athens - continuing to work in coffee shops and apartments that are not in state college. sometimes you just need to get away.

i'm still trying to figure out what is in store for next year now that my grant is pretty much a no-go. i'll keep you posted if i find anything out, but nothing to report as of yet.

as an aside, there is a congrats to be sent out, who welcomed their son, Cole Jackson, into the world a week ago tonight/tomorrow morning. we're all so excited that he is finally here. can't wait to meet him. i'm not even going to make him call me doctor ;)