"Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."

So, Kurt Vonnegut died. He gave a talk at my university right before I got there. It got a lot of press at our small institution and people still have quotes and pictures up from it. I have only ever read 'Slaughterhouse-Five' by him but started 'Breakfast of Champions' about 10 days ago. It was the only thing I have with me that I thought might be enjoyable enough to follow Barbara Kingsolvers' 'The Poinsonwood Bible' (which I loooovvvvved).

When I was in college, I ran around with a bunch of English/Music major types. There was an underlying interest in counter culture. Some were really into the beat poets, perhaps a bit preoccupied with being expatriates, DOING things, MAKING things, READING things (lots of times all this doing etc. was done heavily under the influence of large jugs of wine). It was all very hip considering that Freshman year most of them lived in the honors dorm and a good number went on to grad school.
I associate Vonnegut with that group of people. While I am not close with a lot of them anymore, I still hold on to all the ideas and ideals. His death is like another piece of that whole picture falling away. It isn't necessarily bad, just a strange feeling of letting old things go...

No, who is THIS?

For some reason, it seems my cell phone lines have become crossed. Yesterday I kept trying to call V. I call him. My phone says I am connected to him. I talk. It is not him. I feel foolish. He simultaneously gets a call that says it is me calling. It is not me.
This happened 4 times when I called V and once when I texted a different friend. Not only is it weird, but I am apparently pretty scary if you don't know me....

Embarrassing crossed call #1.
Bears just got a turnover.
Me YELLING to who I think is V: "HOLY CRAP!"
Guy who sounds a little like V: "Yeah, uh holy crap!?"
Me: "That was totally crazy!"
Guy: "I can hardly believe it!" Hangs up.

Embarrassing crossed Text #1
My text: "I'm so glad you were wrong! Woo hoo! The bears totally squashed them!"
My phone rings saying it is the friend I wrote.
Me: "Hello, how awesome is this?"
Strange girl: "Hello? who is this?"
At this point I think my friend is playing a trick and either gave the phone to someone else or is just pretending to not know me. Other people have done this to me before and I always fall for it.
Me: "How great is this!"
Girl: "I just got a text from this number. Do I know you? Why are you talking about Bears?"
Me: "Are you kidding? Just stop it- I am really excited!"
Girl: silence
Me: "Isn't this friends' name?"
Girl: "No, and I have never heard of them before."
Me: " ummmm" then I go on to explain that I wasn't talking about REAL bears. uhhh, football team? Chicago? Apologize profusely.
Girl: "Oh, ok." Hangs up.

What is going on? I really hope this stops. I don't like having to ask who it is when I can V. Plus, yelling at strangers and scaring girls with texts about bears is just weird.

Best. Day. Ever.

February 4th is V's birthday. As I mentioned Friday, I am going to be with him for it (therefore I am officially going for his B-Day- not the game. I bought my ticket before the NFC championship game). BUT, it is also the Superbowl! AND the Bears will be playing!
What a great day it will be! I can't believe how excited I am already for my trip and it is still 10 days away! Over use of exclamation points all around!!!

If this is how happy I am just to see Vance and about football- I am going to be a crazy, Happy, grinning mess when I get married!

Substance

I have been meaning to post some things with substance lately. Unfortunately, everything with substance that I have thought of lately has been pretty depressing. No one really wants to read about how miserable and alone I am in a crap ass town where the grocery store doesn't even have boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Trust me, V and my mom have listened to me complain and cry enough already I'm sure. I think I have held it together pretty well by telling myself that things will get better after an adjustment period. That was at least until the chicken thing happened yesterday. Luckily, I had also spent more than I can afford at Target (thank goodness for Target retail therapy and Cute Overload). When I returned to the RV where I now reside, I put some rugs down, washed some new cups, and got to put up curtains so I didn't have to change clothes in the kitchen. Ahhhh, small luxuries.....

Anyways, in addition to getting back to the knitting updates, hopefully I will ruminate on some of the fascinating things about being an academic (if I may be so bold as to call my measly grad student self an academic) in a non-academic world. Things like set hours and something they are calling "breaks."
In addition, the RV life is really.....special. Living with essentially an airplane toilet for 8 months will be interesting. Also, I like hot showers. RVs don't have much hot water. I imagine the solution to this one is more complex than whatever terrorist plot Jack Bauer will have to diffuse this season on my beloved (and unavailable where I live) 24.

"1-2-3 Space Mountain"

The best...

HOLY CRAP did you see the Barack Obama intro to Monday night football? The set it up that even I half thought he was going to announce he was running for president. But the 'new guy' that might not have enough experience was, of course, Rex- not himself. He 'is ready...." FOR THE BEARS TO GO ALL THE WAY!! Ahhh, you see what they did there? hehehe. Even if you don't care about football it is worth finding on YouTube.

The good...

Revisions on the proposal are out to the committee to look over I did everything but the graphs they want...

I met with StatsMan at school today and will have an easy time on the stats for my next publication...

V is the best home repair guy in the world!

I finished one of the arm warmers for Dr. B! At least one wrist will be warm before January and she will know that the other is on its way....

I started a FANTASTIC alpaca eyelet scarf.... mmmm....alpaca...

The bad....

The committee wants graphs of made up data. This wouldn't be so bad except made up data is always so generic it isn't really all that informative...

I can't use ALL the data as one of my groups only has a sample size of one. I also need to collect more data to round out the groups and soon!

There are roots in the main line to our sewer....

No pics of the knits today!

The unclassifiable...

One month from today I will be here. And I will be all alone....

I hope I don't get attacked by javelina...

Sad, Happy, Headache

So today started out on a sad note. As mentioned by Sneks, our favorite bus driver- Clyde- had his last day today. He was always nice to grad students, snarky to undergrads and excited to talk. Some of my favorite conversations revolved around the city I live in and he grew up in, travels (past and future) and treadmills (when I was a frequent gym go-er last year). We got a card and baked cookies but most of all wish him the best of luck and fun in his retirement!

After saying goodbye, I got straight down to work. I have organized all of my upcoming grant proposal deadlines, finished and SENT OUT THE PROPOSAL! It is done and I feel like I could throw up. Really. And I didn't even eat lunch. I now start the countdown to the dissertation defense. 20 days to go. I better start picking out my powerpoint color scheme!

Unfortunately, I am also getting a migraine. I tend to get them a lot when I am stressed out. Before I took my qualifyers I went and got prescribed for a preventative medication. I haven't taken it in 18 months but might start again. I just don't like having to take a pill everyday for something that only affects me 1-2 times a week at most (and usually I get them even less frequently). However, I start to reconsider this when I remember that 'affects me' REALLY means having to suffer through a 20 minute drive home before spending the rest of the day with my head under a pillow in a dark and quiet room. Hopefully todays will go away once I get off the computer or at least be kept at bay until after I go get my oil changed.