“The universe will take care of you,”

my friend Carol said as we sped down the highway toward San Antonio.

She’s always an optimist, always positive, always upbeat.  I would call myself realistic, which probably means I’m more of a pessimist.  Thus, I listened to what she had to say but didn’t believe it.

We arrived in San Antonio in time for a quick breakfast before a very long day of work. I didn’t sleep much the night before, so it was particularly hard. When we arrived at the hotel, I declared a need for a nap. I went into my room, unpacked a bit, and promptly fell asleep.

About an hour later I heard some noise at my door.  “Probably Carol wanting to go to dinner,” I thought, pulling myself out of bed groggily.  Something didn’t seem right.  When I went to open my door, I realized that it was not locked, and when I opened it, I saw a young guy running down the stairs. 

I went to Carol’s room and knocked on the door. “Did you just come to my room?” I asked.  “No.” she said.  Before she could ask “Why?” I was back in my room.  Something wasn’t right. Something was missing. 

I was back at Carol’s door a minute later.  “Carol, I think someone broke into my room and stole my purse.  Will you help me look for it?”  We searched the room to no avail.  It was gone. 

We told the front desk person,  called the police, and searched the hotel for the purse.  Nada.  I was incredibly worried because the guy had my purse, which contained my keys — meaning he could come back at any time to steal my car. 

After a half-dozen phone calls to my credit card companies and others, I had calmed down a bit, but I was pretty dejected.  The universe seemed to be screwing me over pretty well at the moment. 

My dear boyfriend agreed to drive down to San Antonio with the spare key to my car, so we could drive the car to another hotel and feel safe. I finally calmed down enough to be convinced to get a candy bar with Carol. She ate hers quickly – before we arrived at our floor on the elevator.  As she went to throw it in the trashcan, what did she see?  My purse inside of the trashcan.  Everything was there, except for my cell phone (which was on it’s last legs, anyway) and 40 dollars in cash.  I was estatic.

At the end of it all, I ended up with a great deal on a new cell phone and a free room at the hotel…so I was out virtually nothing.  It was a good lesson - always make sure to double lock your doors - for not too bad of a price. 

Guess the universe was taking care of me, after all.

I graduated!

I don’t even think people look at this blog anymore: clearly I’ve been neglecting y’all.

But it was for a good cause — finishing up my Ph.D. I’m officially Dr. Unbee!

Cheers and Hook ‘em!

My new puppy!

This is her! My new little IG puppy!!  Help me with a name.

This is the puppy attacking the cat!

seen on PostSecret today….

Top Chef is back!

I can’t wait! I’m watching it with my girls tonight!  Maybe I’ll post a little summary if it is good..

Guess my vote didn’t count, after all.

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

After I caucused for Obama and everything! *tear*!

Thanks to Mrs. Metaphor for the link!!

Spring Break is here!

OK, so I’m not sitting on the beach, or tanning by the pool.  In fact, it’s raining here.  And I’m laying in bed, blogging.  It might sound sort of pathetic, but it is soooo nice.

Lately, I’ve been working between 40-50 hours per week: 10-6ish M-F; and every other Saturday.  Additionally, I’ve been trying to build this house in my spare time and keep our apartment decently clean. I also try to make breakfast and coffee every morning.  Finally, I try to have a wee bit of a social life, too. 

This morning, I made coffee, then went back to bed.  Napped for awhile, then woke up and worked on my dissertation (sadly, I can’t relax completely, since I have to turn the dang thing in in less than a month), made popcorn, watched half an episode of Big Love, did some laundry, played “Go Go Gourmet” (a curiously addicting shockwave game), worked a bit more, and now am back typing away.  Haven’t gotten out of my PJ’s all day.  I tell ya, it is great.

Of course, tomorrow I need to go to the office to analyze my data, and Wednesday I have a meeting with people from my consulting job, and Thursday I’ll have to clean the house because we’re about to have company, and I’ve got to buy that baby shower gift soon, and…agggh!  Ok, no more thinking…relax….

Maybe it’s time for another nap?

By the numbers….

74 days until graduation

72 pages is the length of my dissertation so far…and growing

59 days until the final dissertation is due

48 days until my dissertation defense

36 kids have participated in the study so far

32 days (only a month!) until the draft is due to my committee

22 years since I started school (K-Ph.D)

3 weeks left of testing

2 job prospects

1 degree…finally!

Black Sheep

 

Good news first:  I am 2 1/2 months from graduating.  My study is going well — we’ve hit the halfway point on subjects, and I’m staying on top of things well enough that it shouldn’t be *too* crazy of a mad dash. 

Bad news:  Because I’m not committed to a life in academia, my advisor has  cut me loose.

Example:  Big conference next month.  My advisor helped all of my labmates think of ideas for the conference and never mentioned it to me.  I ended up submitting something by myself (and getting in).  She seemed surprised.

Example:  Yesterday, I was sitting in my friend and labmate’s office when she walked in.  She told my labmate she was going to nominate her for “every award ever, because you are great!” She said this right in front of me, and continued talking about specific awards, without even acknowledging my presence.   I ended up walking out of the room. 

It’s hard to explain to someone that’s not in academia; but your advisor is like your boss, your mom (or dad), a colleague, and a friend all rolled up into one person.  This person is literally responsible for your professional *life*.  If you have a crappy advisor, you’re screwed.  Even if that person is famous and does great research, if he/she doesn’t take care of you, you’ll never get publications, grants, and, eventually, a job. 

I guess the corollary is that you, the student are an employee, a colleague, a friend, and a child, too.  Being able to say, “My student is now a professor at UCLA!” is like your mom saying, “My daughter is a neurosurgeon!”  Saying your student is in consulting, or *gasp* anywhere in industry is sort of like saying, “My child became a garbage collector!”

So you can see why my advisor cut me off, I guess.  But it still hurts, a lot.  You see, I’m just not cut out to be a professor at a big research institution.  I lack some of the skills and desire needed to be truly sucessful at it, and I have some different skills and desires that might give me the potential to really do something neat. I want to help the world, I want a job where I can be creative, and I want a job where I will not be tied to some big “institution” where the primary focus is to bring in money for the department.

The sad truth of the matter is that I am in this situation because I had a heart to heart with my advisor a couple of months ago, where I told her about my dreams and my ideas for what I will do in the future.  It was a very nice talk, she acted very supportive, and it pulled me out of a hole that I had been in for months. 

But then, almost immediately, the former support was gone.

I called my dad and told him what is happening.  He said, “Well honey, you screwed up.  You told her the truth.You should have lied, that’s all there is to it.  She sees you as disloyal, and you shouldn’t be surprised by that.”

It breaks my heart to know that he is right. 

I’m still proud of myself for *not* lying, though, and for trying to be true to who I am, even though it’s a scary, uncharted road.  I guess we’ll see where it leads.

Star Wars, According to a 3 year old

So every now and then, in keeping with the toddler theme, I’ll post videos of cute kids.  This is definitely one of them!