"never bend your head. always hold it high. look the world straight in the face." (h. keller)

Happy Birthday, DAD! i'm not sure if parental versions are what lead to beautiful fall days in appalachia, but i'm certainly not complaining. and today was a beautiful one, indeed.

it's been an overall very fun and very busy week sliding into an equally fun/busy weekend. most of the week was caught up by meetings and speakers, but nothing that wasn't valuable, of course. penn state hosted the symposium on family issues this week, which was focused this year on immigrant families. little did i know that there would be discussion about postville, iowa - a town that turned some sets of eyes my way but that i was pretty sure that i had never heard of before. sometimes i guess you have to move 1200 miles away to learn a little bit about what's going on back home. interesting.

but....i don't feel much like discussing work (i swear my thesis is almost turned in). this weekend is a more fun and interesting topic. friday night involved me basically just laying on lacey's couch watching shows that she had tivo-ed. it was awesome. i don't remember the last time that i did something of the like. maybe right after i got back from austin. but i didn't even read an article. it felt great.

saturday was kristin and erik's annual halloween party. my amy winehouse costume made a debut and was a hit, but jeremy totally stole the show with his unanticipated showing as dorothy from the wizard of oz. i'm telling you, until you've sat next to a cross-dressing dorothy watching penn state play ohio state in football, you really haven't seen anything :) he's probably going to want to kill me for posting that pic, but i'm going to do it anyway. he really, really enjoyed the halloween candy that mom sent to share, so in the end it seems like a fair trade, right? i also took a general people pic to send to lacey since she was in texas this weekend and thus had to miss out on the fiesta happenings. that and i thought that kara might enjoy seeing krisitin as another halloween character outside of the first time the two of them met. now kara can picture kristin as daphne rather than as carrie.

actually, a good portion of our department is pictured at right. from left to right you see carmen, a 2nd year student (lipstick on a pig), amy (velma), amy's dad, uh oh, i forgot that guy's name....but he was super nice and assured me that he was a real penn state fan and not just in costume. then i think rachel (possibly misspelled - dressed as a referree). rachel is kristin's trainer at the gym and the nice guy (i feel like such a jerk for forgetting his name) is her boyfriend. then there's kristin dressed as daphne, kieren, another 2nd year student (cleopatra), you can kind of make out the green and red arms of adam and caroline (mario and luigi) and then kristine's head in the foreground (an '80s aerobic instructer). kristine's probably not going to be a fan of this pic either, but she's very unassuming about how adorable she is in general.

today my main accoplishments were coding videotapes at the lab and also carving this AWESOME pumpkin. bear in mind, there were a lot of obama pumpkins that will probably be appearing soon on the internet, but i stuck with my original plan, pictured below. hope you like :)

i'm sorry...i seem to have lost half of october

both my winter coat and my crock pot made it back out into the open today. it must be about that time. i either barely noticed it moving in or did a much better job of ignoring it this year. but suddenly it was cold and i found myself replacing the winter cap that i left on the plane last year (made it from PA to the midwest something like 4 times, to Canada and back, but didn't survive the final leg of the trip from CA - go figure). needless to say, it's cold here.

perhaps i'm lucky, then, that i've been spending all of my time indoors. over the course of the last week, your best bet was to either find me at the gym or in the lab working on one of our many ongoing projects. we're recruiting a few more participants for the attention study, so i'll be back in the ERP lab soon enough. we're also piloting families for the HAPPY study, the visits for which have been taking what feels like an eternity. last night's family was at the lab for 3 hours. thank goodness our task is playing with cute kids or that would be miserable.

the most trying thing at this point has been trying to learn how to program computer tasks. i have absolutely no experience in this area. i have another graduate student who used to be a programmer around to help me, but even she is finding this to be a challenge. so....i guess we'll see.

several pieces of good news, though. first, there is another good and relatiely inexpensive concert coming up at the same small school we caught ingrid michaelson at. lacey is out of town that weekend, so i'm currently recruiting other friends to attend. second is that i have somewhat of a training plan laid out. this is good news and if i can just start getting comfortable with my position in academia there appears to at least be a place for me to fit. it additionally involved telling three facutly members that i adore that they would not be serving on my comps and dissertation commitee after all. that stunk, but they generally seemed to understand. i had a third and fourth but i got distracted by the world series. one was probably that i'm leaving for missouri next friday. and in less than a month, i'll be heading home. things like that are always good news.

and finally, before i had even left my apartment on sunday, nick had run the des moines marathon. in fact, he was through almost half of it before i even got out of bed. very impressive, and i'm very proud of him :) perhaps we'll meet up over thanksgiving break and share a drink in celebration of his awesomeness. you know....since i'll be home and all :)

i'm finally just sitting at home for what feels like the first time in ages. in real time, i think it's something closer to two weeks. but it feels good. it would feel better if the mizzouri/oklahoma state game wasn't making me so nervous, but it still feels pretty good.

i found out this week that coach is bob knight is coming to penn state. if lacey wasn't in new york with her family, i would already have been trying to coax her into attending. but i suppose i'll let her bask in the glory of family time & a major longhorns victory - particularly since i have just finished saying how much i am enjoying my own quiet time.

i think i had mentioned kaleb's tenth birthday and how hard it was both to believe and to digest. today we piloted our new study, dubbed the HAPPY (Health and Positivity in the Preschool Years) study, with jeremy's nephew who actually reminded me of kaleb in a lot of ways. i wasn't sure how many people i had shown this picture to, when tristin's good ears led amy and the rest of the fam to a little mojo show at the state fair. note kaleb appropriately centered between the other two long-haired fellows. i love them all, of course. and miss everyone like crazy. josh also just celebrated a birthday. he'll always be older than me, so his aren't quite as hard to swallow ;)

i just finished scheduling my "training meeting" which is one of my requirements as a fellow on the Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) training grant. i'm not entirely sure what this will entail, but in my mind, it is talking with kristin and one of the executive members of the grant (i've chosen dr. rick gilmore because of his expertise with neuroimaging, which we're thinking will be part of my dissertation work) and basically laying out the groundwork for my training from now until i finish the program. that's both exciting and terrifying. but it would be nice to have a sense of how where i'm at is going to relate to where i'm going.

kristin is also currently interviewing postdocs, one of whom we (the other grad students, staff, and i) we will hopefully be talking with in the coming week. i hope she finds a good match. and i selfishly hope we get someone who will be a good model for how to actually do a dissertation and find a good postdoc. and possibly who is interested in some of the same things that i am so as to get a few papers put together in the process. although if next year at this time i feel like i have improved my technical writing skills to the point where i can pretty much write independently, i will be happy. we did get a new picture of the lab, though. and as always you really can't tell kristin from any of the students. she's on my right in the photo. to my left is rachel, then amy - both of whom you have heard and will continue to hear about, i'm sure.

i'm almost caught up on my schoolwork from being sick for a week and then gone for a week. i've decided to audit my stats course, which takes a little bit of the pressure off (i won't receive a grade for it), but i'd still like to take everything out of it that i can. it was slightly impeded by my having to write a computer program for one of our computerized tasks for the HAPPY project. if you're thinking you didn't know that i knew programming, it's because i didn't. and i still kind of don't.

but it doesn't stop me from being excited already about being in columbia in about 3 weeks. i'm wondering if we can possibly still talk lacey and gary into joining us...

everything really was bigger in texas...

brrrr! it's getting cold again in the happy valley. i remember a few weeks ago reminding myself that i shouldn't complain about how hot it was at the football game because these days would be here soon enough. and here they are...

it probably doesn't help that i'm coming off of a week of 90 degree weather in austin :) it was a really wonderful time. i tried sending mom and dad a really cute picture from this outdoor restaurant that was probably my favorite place on the trip. what you see in the picture is the outdoor seating, the restaurant on the left, and to the right were terraced rows that led down to an outdoor stage (unfortunately no outdoor music the night that we were there). it was so wonderful. i made lacey promise that we could go back there the next time that i end up in austin (we are trying to convince becca, josh, and matt that that should be our next summer group trip :)

i did get to see some live music though, as anyone who visits austin should, i think. my hope was to see a show at stubbs, but there were country bands there on the nights that we had free, so that didn't end up happening, but true to form for the live music capital of the world, there seemed to be different bands of different types tucked into nooks and crannies and bars all over the downtown area.

AND i did get some work done, too. actually, i think that the preconference training that i went to might have been one of the best workshops i've done since i've started graduate school. it was an event-related potentials (ERP) workshop, which meant looking at a lot of brain waveforms a little bit of chatter about electricity, and also a little bit of wondering how on earth i am ever going to make it out of graduate school and somehow land a respectable job...all while trying to work really hard to do good developmental science. this could be a pretty incredible journey, if i do say so myself.



this is probably one of my favorite pictures from austin texas - the other one includes kristin and i'm not sure how happy she'd be about being sprawled on my blog :) but lacey and her friends were excellent hosts. they took me to this place, which if you love french fries as much as i do, you are bound to think is awesome. plus, i love little bar and grill type cafes as much as the next midwesterner. i may not eat a lot of hamburgers, but that doesn't mean that i don't appreciate the character of so many of the places that make them their staple product.

two more things before signing off...a happy, happy 10th birthday to kaleb. i really have struggled all day to figure out how ten years have passed. it seems close to impossible to me.


and then...oh my goodness, i certainly don't want to post a lot of political things on here, but did people see this interview with sarah palin? it was just painful for me to watch. honestly. the discomfort actually hurt me a little bit. kind of like how it feels to watch bush say.....well anything. someone remind robby that he's still one of my most loved, dearest friends, k? because i'm pretty sure that if he ever reads this, he will no longer be speaking to me.

this weekend was infinitely better than last weekend because i was actually able to get out of bed. i spent some sort of illness marathon in my apartment last weekend. i went to bed sometime relatively early on friday up and didn't do much of anything until thursday. that was not fun. i didn't really like it, but i feel like i've put in my time of being sick. so, done.

i finally downloaded the pictures that were on my phone to my computer (although because it's me, there were not that many) and i still really like this picture that we took at the thai place we ate before ingrid michaelson. it's just so cute and happy. and i still think it's just so important to remember how much we really are in this thing (called life) together and the how the best thing we can really do for one another is to love one another. in my humble opinion.

yesterday was the first conference game of the season and what a day of football it was. i don't think i have to express might delight at both usc and florida getting beat. although i was never at a missouri football game, i hope tomorrow finds them near the very top of the ap rankings list. so, if you saw the game, it looked something like this madness:

some of rachel's friends from the law school have the clever idea of getting a group of 10+ together and getting out ticket vouchers in advance, which means we got really great seats. see where the "S" is in the picutre? we were basically across the aisle to the right of that. it was really great. except i was really jealous because i've always wanted to be a part of the "S" - i'm not going to lie. that t-shirt would probably be the only free thing i ever got from penn state :) ahh....i feel like i'm talking about central college again now. but it was a great game, great seats, a good solid win, so i really can't complain about much. i think the next home game might be against michigan for homecoming, so i'm sure there'll be more whiteout pictures to be shared.

lacey and i just found out that the bodies exhibit is going to be in harrisburg until november 1st. has everyone heard about this? it's real bodies on display that is supposed to be both artful and educational. people have mixed feelings about it, obviously, but i'd actually like to see it. although if it turns out i have to go catch it when it's in new york city, obviously i won't be heartbroken.

i must get back to my packing and planning for my austin trip (apparently i'll be traveling to the land of eternal summer - seriously, how is it physically possible to have 90 degree weather in october? i just don't get it...), but i have to pass on this little gem that lacey received the other day. it's the RSVP portion of a real, actual wedding invitation. please take careful note of why anyone responding "no" will be assumed to be missing the special event:

that's right my friends....because the cows got out.

oh boy.

there is live music tucked in a small gym far away

it's been a fun and interesting (and fast-moving) weekend thus far. i finally got some time to catch up with nick, which was great. i think i hadn't realized how much time preparing for my thesis defense had actually been taking me. although listening to him talk about training for a marathon made me feel pretty lazy.

friday night we had a "girls night" with some of the ladies from the Human Development & Family Studies (HDFS) department. they're so sweet and our schedules don't allow us all to get together very often, but it's always so nice when we do.

last night we went to a small (central-esque) school near harrisburg that was hosting ingrid michaelson . it was a pretty good live show. she really has an amazing voice and i'd bet money that she's had some training behind her. she's one of the most controlled performers i've seen in a while and it clearly pays off with the things she's able to produce. she played one new song that she had apparently just written which i, of course, want to own rightnowrightthissecond. but this one was good, too. and i'm not sure who put together the cute video, but it kind of made me giggle.

and did i mention how awesome it is to be able to watch the iowa football games now that we have the big ten network? particularly if it turns out to be one of the few times that the hawks can post a win. although i will say that i particularly enjoyed the announcers gushing over hy-vee after taking 10 minutes to explain what it was. i personally don't have fond chldhood memories of perfectly-backed hy-vee hot dog buns, but i suppose that there are worse things that iowa could bring to the world?

and i should probably make similar mention of missouri, since they are a team of similar colors that i was somewhat tied to for a time and still have some connections with. truth be told, i was flipping back and forth between games rooting for blacks and golds of different roots. my goodness, they're awfully good. i'm not really sure what else to say.

so, today there is a psychology department picnic which i should probably be starting to get ready for at some point soon. then it will be business as usual as i start to tackle the reading that will already be coming due on monday.

i know, it's an exciting life i lead.

how long does it take to catch up on life?

ohhhhhhhhkay. i think i've finally started to breathe again. perhaps i can have the life of a normal graduate student, whatever that might mean. so, i defended on tuesday and can now be honest in adding the letters m.s. after my name if i ever get the urge to be a bit more pretentious. i'll make revisions and turn in my final document to the graduate school sometime in november.

but the rest of this month will be devoted to getting my poster ready for spr and get this manuscript finished, hopefully, by october 1st.

our lab has gotten a new website up and running and because i had nothing to do with it, i can say it looks fabulous! i'm begging for a new picture, however. you'll understand why.

otherwise, its pretty much been business as usual. i've finally been able to have some quality phone time with nick and kara and soon to be erik as well. so, in the spirit of things that make nick happy, i'll post a picture of the woodchuck that lives outside of my apartment. i think we are equally scared of each other at this point and tolerate each other in medium proximity. he is vastly less terrifying since lacey named him (chuck, appropriately). he's our friend, though, and is likely equally dismayed about the quickly approaching fall.

lacey had a friend visit last week. meg, who is a teacher in new york with the teach for america program. they made yummy, yummy migas which are quite possibly my new obsession. it was so nice to have her here because she's so sweet and it made me eager to get home and see my own loved ones some time soon. thank goodness my mom has been persistent in asking me to get my tickets booked and "out of the way." it's almost time to start a countdown, i think :)

ttfn.