You know, I figure there’s no time like when you’re sitting in a bath tub waiting for the power to go out to write a blog post. So, here we are. It feels like it was only last summer when I was in a similar situation. Oh wait. It was. Zing!
Bath Tub Apocalypse
Right, anyhow. The weather has indeed been freaky these last few days/weeks. Much worse in the surrounding areas, obviously (e.g., Missouri, holy cow), though I did get stuck in what I have been calling The Apocalypse on Monday evening. We were supposed to get storms, but apparently “storms” meant swirling winds ripping down giant trees to block the roads, bringing public transit to a halt. Thus, I was stranded at the psychology building with torrential rain and a wee broken umbrella to get by. Luckily, I have friends and one of those friends has a car and a heart, so he came and picked me up. Sirens everywhere. I honestly thought I might have to sleep in my office. On the upside, the psych building probably is one of the safer places to be in the midst of a tornado. Limestone through and through with a basement to boot.
Oh. And there goes the power. Damnit. It’s trying so hard to come back on, but no luck. No wait…we’re back!
Enough about the weather (though if I die tonight in a tornadic fury, this unpublished blog post will serve as a warning for those who underestimate the power of oppositional winds and rapidly falling temperatures); in other life news, I’m currently studying for my qualifying exam. Uuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Really. Essentially, on the last two days before classes start in the fall, I will, for four hours each day, (attempt to) cogently argue and write on three questions regarding ANYTHING IN ALL OF THE FIELD OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY. Yeah. How about them apples? Needless to say, I will be reading, literally, thousands upon thousands of pages this summer and attempting to memorize a hundred plus citations that I will basically choose at random because I have no idea which should be memorized/will be useful. Yay! Fun times! My light, introductory reading that I was supposed to do this week was a 600-some page social psych textbook, leading into a 2-volume overview of the field called The Handbook of Social Psychology and a beast of a text on dual-process models, moving eventually into a few review books per major area of the field (4-ish) and a fine integration of hundreds of relevant empirical and theoretical papers. Sure. Anyhow, after I do the written exam I have about a week to prepare for my oral defense, which petrifies me.
So, that is my summer. Well, along with running some experiments, analyzing data, writing and editing manuscripts, and trying to avoid getting beaten down by some massively pissed off wind and rain. I will have a short reprieve in Portland for about 2 weeks. I get to see my oldest nephew turn 6 (I haven’t been home for his b-day since he turned 1!), and go to the beach for the 4th of July with the entire family…so that’s pretty awesome. I plan on powering through and continually reminding myself that, come September 6 or so, it will all be over and new episodes of Doctor Who will be back on TV. What could be better than that?
One more thing, since we’re ending on positive notes here…I won a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (in real life, not just in my escapist fantasies), so that was seriously exciting when I found out. I guess it means that some people out there think that what I am doing is worthwhile (which my mom told me to shove in the face of the math prof who didn’t understand the scientific method and “judged” my research poster at an IU women in science conference and wrote on my eval sheet that funding would be better spent elsewhere). It also means my take home pay over the next 3 years just went up by about 50% and I never have to TA again, sooo…that’s awesome. I have had to keep reminding myself about it so I could renew my battered self-esteem over the last few months. And not to be all “the year in awards” or whatever, but I also snagged a $500 travel award for my research for a big national conference and a fun $100 award for being an “outstanding graduate TA”…which I only bring up because, as I alluded to, I was having a hard time at it by the end of this semester and really needed something to validate me being here and doing what I’m doing. I’ve never had awards or recognitions really matter or mean something to me before. I mean, they’re nice and great and all, but this time around…I don’t know. Not that I was going to quit, necessarily, but I needed some affirmation and validation and some motivation to keep on keeping on because I was sort of feeling like shit, and I wasn’t going to get what I needed anywhere else. So it was nice having some 3rd parties give me a little pat on the back. Anyhow, that bit there was longer than I intended. I meant to write about school year/end of semester stuff earlier, but never got around to it. Eh. No one’s keeping track.
Crossing my fingers the tornado warning is over now so I can go to bed, surely to be woken by my weather alert radio around 3AM telling me to go back into the bath tub. Full circle. Aww.
