A Little of This, A Little of That

I’ve been totally MIA from this blog lately. Between long hours at my job and what seems like a million different projects on my plate, I feel like I’m burning the proverbial candle at both ends and taking random chunks right out of the middle of it. The sensation is not unlike death by a million tiny paper cuts. I think I need a vacation, a nap, and maybe some time sent sipping fruity drinks by a pool somewhere. Not necessarily in that order.

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After writing about how well-prepared I felt for my final project for this semester’s grad school class, I was a little worried that my own hubris might do me in. I didn’t have any particular reason to be nervous, but it did feel a bit like tempting fate to talk about how well everything was going. Luckily for me, I managed not to do myself in with irony. I finished my proposal with plenty of time to spare and I think I managed to do a decent job with it. Of course, and this is where the irony comes in, our professor announced today that our papers would not be graded.

Which means that we’ve had exactly zero assignments that were actually graded. Which means that I have no idea how I’m going to do in the class. Which means that my internal grade grubber is going more than a little bit crazy right now.

I had a minor Lisa Simpson moment where I went to her office hours and begged for validation. “Grade me! Grade me! I’m ever so smart!” She assured me that I was fine, more than fine, and that I have nothing to worry about. A good chunk of our grade is based on class participation. I can’t seem to ever shut up, so I think I should be in good shape. For once in my life, it really paid off that I’m such a loud-mouth.

I loved that class and I’ll be sorry not be taking it anymore. But I won’t complain about spending a few weeks reading cheap detective novels and not worrying about deadlines.

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A work buddy sent out an email the other day for his friend whose kid needs a kidney transplant. I’m not exactly rolling in the dough at the moment, but I sent them a small donation. I’m sure that every little bit helps. If any of you have a few extra dollars to spare, I would encourage you to help out as well. I won’t bother you all by getting up on my soapbox about the heartlessness of  insurance companies. Let’s just say that this holiday season I am extra thankful for friends and family who are (for the most part) in good health.

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Our final project for my class was to write a mock proposal for our Master’s thesis. We put together an extensive bibliography and then proposed an avenue of research. The idea was that you could get a head start on your actual Master’s thesis proposal. I think that I will actually use mine, when the time comes. If I manage to get everything to work, I might get to do research both at the Baseball Hall of Fame and in the Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey archives at the Library of Congress. How freaking cool would that be?

(Answer: very).

Are any of you interested in a summary of my proposal? I’m thinking about writing a blog post about it, but I won’t bother if it will bore people.

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Did I mention how tired I am?

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No, I’m not pregnant.

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I swear.

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I’m sure that there’s all sorts of other things that I should be telling you about, but my brain stopped working about 27 hours ago.

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Did I mention that I’m tired?

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My paternal grandfather is slowly succumbing to melanoma and I really don’t want to talk about it. Another family member just had a bit of a scare with a squamous cell carcinoma and I really don’t want to talk about it. Luckily, the dermatologist found it in time and they managed to remove all of it. But let’s just say that I was pretty pleased to get such a quick referral from my new doctor to see a dermatologist and have all of my moles checked. Now you can add a family history of skin cancer to the family history of heart attacks, diabetes and being awesome.

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This is kindof a debbie downer of a blog post, huh? Here, I’ll make it up to you. Witness: a photo of a bottle of wine at Costco that was bigger than my head.