Almost there

Three days until I head to Ann Arbor for Thanksgiving Break. Woohoo for getting a week off at Thanksgiving and no Friday classes!

The heat in my apartment just kicked on. Smells like burning dust, yum. It's been cold here and I shudder to think what the heating bill will be this month. Oh well, that's why they pay me the big bucks, so my fingers don't freeze while typing.

Classes are...ok. It's still up and down. I've had more conversations in the past week that make me feel much better, though - current grad students who can commiserate, a partner who reminds me of all the cool stuff to think about out there, parents who are supportive. I'm presenting tomorrow and turning in a book review, so this break will be especially needed. I feel pretty good about the presentation (not so much the book review) but I've still got a good 4-5 hours tonight to work on those.

I'm thinking about making green beans for dinner. Yum.

The union has been meeting about some changes to our program in the History department. Apparently, we (the first years) have these two new required colloquia about our prospectus and orals in our second year. This effectively limits the number of courses we can take and speeds up our research. For the prospectus you are supposed to know what archives and stuff you want to do for your dissertation. And I'm supposed to start writing that a year from now? When do I get the time and money to travel to the archives? This summer? After I've taken only half my classes? Seems a little odd to me.

So today I went to that union meeting, a talk by my advisor about his new book, and his office hours to chat about my final paper, and then to a local cycling advocacy group meeting. It was a weird meeting, with no real introduction or inclusion of new people, but I think it's something I definitely want to get involved with. Being able to safely cycle has taken on whole new meaning for me and I'm quite passionate about it. I even got yelled at on the way home today as I shook my head in disgust at a car who didn't properly yield to me. Maybe I'm a little militant about it, but let's face it, I'm the one who will get squashed. I deserve to be a little militant.

Was kind of sick Friday night. Actually, kind of sick all of last week, but made it through. My mom's visit last weekend was really fun (did I post about that?)No. I didn't. And apparently people commented last week and blogger refused to notify me. Huh. Sorry.

So my mom's visit was fun. Did the whole city tour thing, walked around campus, had Indian food for dinner. The next day was a marathon NYC dress shopping trip. I found a lot of things I liked, but nothing spectacular. No pictures, either - we totally forgot. Suffice it to say everything looked pretty good but nothing was exactly what I wanted. Going the white-or-light-colored bridesmaid dress route, though, might be the best choice money-wise I can make. $300 for a designer bridesmaid dress that's really awesome versus a $700 crappy bridal gown? No question. But there is a $650 small designer gown that I really like...it's silk...sigh...

Then Sunday we had brunch with my aunt, uncle, and cousin. Nice to see them. That night we had dinner with two of my friends here at an Italian place. Twas the day of lunching and socializing.

Monday she headed back to Atlanta :( but not before stocking my poor grad student shelves with cans of beans. Also, she broke in the futon so it is now tested and ready for visitors. Performed wonderfully. Thank you, IKEA! It was really nice to have her here and I can't wait for Christmas in Atlanta!

So yeah, should get back to work. Here's to three more days...