Whirlwind

It's hard for me to comprehend the past two or so weeks. They have been a rollercoaster of emotions surrounding my three "lives"...personal, professional and academic. Mostly the latter two.

First came the midterms. Those stressed me out. I felt like I did not have a grasp of them at all but ended up with high Bs and low As, which caused me to breathe a sigh of relief. Now I must worry about my thesis...I think I know where I'm headed but it has been slower going than expected. The data portion has frustrated me most...I have it but my SPSS version will not read the documents I need!

Then come the bumps in the road we have faced in Senate. It's probably no worse than I have been though before but I have felt like I was in the middle of, and even contributed to, a lot of drama. We all have lately, and it hasn't been the greatest use of time--something I realized through many conversations with a certain friend and colleague who has usually been able to help me put things in pretty good perspective. And I'm thankful beyond words for that. Everyone needs a person or two to keep them "grounded".

Of course the MSUSA conference this past weekend had its share of drama too. Our State Chair, a colleague for several years, decided to step down after this semester. While everyone understands it was a decision he had to make, it's sad to see him go.

I was asked yesterday how I was doing lately. My honest response was that I am hanging in there and have been pretty stressed. This week has seemed better and I hope it stays that way.

What a Week

And it's only Wednesday. Enough said.

Oh well, at least I don't have class tomorrow. The beauty of having two classes the same day with the same prof who decided to cancel for the day.

"Crash"

Tonight I had the opportunity to watch the movie Crash. It was screened on campus...an event put on by the newly formed "Diversity Jam" group.

Wow...what a picture. It was powerful...sad. It was so interesting to see the different perspectives the characters had. It really brought home the point that everyone has their own struggles and set of prejudices. And I found that the score was quite good as well...bought the soundtrack.

Definitely a movie worth watching.

A Busy Week, But Productive Too

• Took two midterms--I feel comfident about the Campaigns and Elections one, but not so much about the World Lit one.
• Did one of the pieces of my campaign analysis project
• Turned in my grad plans...now officially filed to graduate in May...a little scary, but good.
• Met about my poli sci thesis, which is starting to come together, at least I know where I'm going with it...if only I could fast forward through the whole data collection and entry part.
• Did lots of little things around the office, and helped our speaker with the meeting since Cody is gone and Bruce was temporarily mute.
• and plenty more...
  

It's Entirely Too Early

To be windy and snowy and nasty like it has been the last two days.

UGH.

I Haven't Dropped off the Face of the Earth

Once again, I have not posted in nearly a week, and as usual I imagine that people have been waiting to hear what I have to say...or not. I was in the office the other day and Steph and Cody were talking about whether or not blog posts should be dated. Yes, it provides a nice chronology but also makes one look and go "oh gosh I haven't posted in X number of days."

At any rate, it's been a very busy week. We had Senate elections, so I spent close to 10 hours tabling for that. We did get 400-some votes cast, which is pretty good. I did miss the episode of CSI my friend was in...bought what I thought was the right episide on iTunes yesterday, but it wasn't so I guess I will have to wait until the right one comes out.

Of course I also had a few assignments to get done...seems like everything always comes due at the same time, but it always works out.

Retreat

Yesterday we had our Senate retreat. I think it went very well. We went out to Itasca State Park and it was a great day; a tad cool in the morning but sunny and nice. The fall color there was also beautiful. It was good to get away from campus on such a day and have some conversation about the rest of the year.

Today--a lazy Sunday.