Read the assigned reading for one of the classes I’m grading for
Read Simpson intro
Read Fujiwara and Roshanravan intro
Turned in a form to reactivate direct deposit
Read “The Signification of the Phallus”
Ate lunch and did some of the reading outside
Briefly caught up with a friend on her committee search
Reread 15 pages of Of Grammatology (because I’m not done with it yet and I put it down for too long) and am still continuing to read on now
I am also trying to be conscious of my posture, as well as whether I’m pursing my lips. Dinner tonight will be a noodle bowl with shiitake and I’m so excited for it. I brought gym stuff with me, but I’m not ready to step away from working yet, so that probably won’t happen today.
work: Put a pause on everything to prepare for and knock out Step 2 CS! This is practical component for medical boards, where you examine and diagnose 12 standardized patients portrayed by actors & actresses in a role-play style exam. I’m officially ¾ done with medical boards, and likely won’t have to even think about Step 3 for another 1.5 years or so!
life: Caught up with another friend from undergrad! LA is a little too distracting, hence my relative lack of progress during the challenge (*sigh*) and which is why I’m pretty glad I left for medical school.
clinical: There have been some hefty cases in the last week. Crohn’s disease in a young adult who, for years, elected for alternative therapy in lieu of standard treatment, and unfortunately developed amyloidosis, a devastating consequence of autoimmune disease often resulting a short mean life expectancy. NB: There are times when alternative medicine has a role in disease management, but never in place of scientifically proven, clinically effective treatments. Yes, big pharma has become increasingly exploitative and abusive of providers’ good will in recommending the best treatments possible (and there are definitely bad egg physicians who prioritize their self-interest as well), but it always hurts to see patients suffer from an utter lack of trust in therapies that work. please help us help you :(
so today, i spent my time doing nothing because tomorrow is going to be batshit and the day after is the first day of school. so today, i sort of relaxed, i finished the main episodes of Potterless, and I tried and failed to set up my second round of direct deposit things. I’m counting down the days until I move because I’m ready to be closer to campus. I’m mentally spending so much time “kitchen-cleaning” and that’s the greatest sign that I’m stressed out with no real place to expend the energy.
i am beyond ready to be at wherever i am three weeks from now when I’ve become a bit more settled than i am now and also have received my first paycheck because my god i am over being this poor.
today i
I attempted to set up direct deposit
added a few things to my list of work clothing i want to buy when i get paid
downloaded four out of five of the books i need for my Kenneth Burke class
went over the syllabus for the rhet class i am ta’ing for
tomorrow i need to
go grab the fifth book from the library
print off the syllabi i have access to
meet with the prof i am working with
take notes on counter-statement by kenneth burke
drop books off at office
set up folders on flashdrive and dropbox
add pdfs to dropbox
get last round of groceries
wish me luck as this week gets going. i don’t even know what i’ve gotten myself into, god’s honest.
This weekend was not an academic weekend at all, and that’s more than fine. Here are what I did this weekend:
Put down a deposit on our first choice of venue! They threw in a bunch of free services for us, so that is beyond awesome!
Our friend threw us an engagement picnic. It was at a local botanical garden with some of our closest friends and their loved ones. The garden was beautiful, the light was perfect, the picnic was fun and full of laughter, I didn’t get any additional mosquito bites, so, all in all, it was perfect.
Took a BodyFlow class with a friend.
Put up shelving above the dining table with the same friend.
Next week will be busy for me, so things will be more academic-oriented then. Hope everyone had a great weekend!
(I somehow managed to schedule these posts from 2 weeks ago for September - whoops!, I blame lack of sleep!) (as a result I’m condensing them into one big post!)
- highlight of the week was my trip to London where I visited the V&A to see the cast courts, then onto the British Museum where I found some tombstones I am writing about and met up with a friend I hadn’t seen since graduation in June 2018!
- I started reading ‘Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age’ by Donna Zuckerberg after meaning to read it since it came out! - it’s very interesting and super relevant - I might do a review when I’m finished!
- I had to include the photo of my two main men - Hadrian and Antinous - mostly because my article on Antinous has been peer-reviewed by three people and I’m excited/anxious to read what they think!
The past week was completely cannibalized by some non-school things I’m working on (and the aftermath of my 26th birthday cough cough hangover), BUT my advisor is happy with my progress on The Big Paper as of our meeting this week and on board with my general (vague, chaotic) plan for the semester.
It’s Sunday and my schedule is packed as of, like, 8 a.m. tomorrow. I just got home from the department’s annual welcome back brunch (underwhelming, as usual, but lox bagels!), and I’m *so* torn between spending the rest of the day cleaning my apartment, washing my sheets, working on my calendar, and otherwise getting my ducks in a row for the semester, and gifting myself the gift of drinking the rest of the birthday Hamm’s and tattooing myself while I make a dent in my Netflix queue. But the day is young yet and who says I can’t do both? Laundry in the machine, trash and recycling taken out, candles lit, beer cracked, dumb lizard (bottom photo) watching on with great skepticism
- I’ve been on the cusp of a cold all week and thus have slept a lot and not done much work - but that’s fine cause my heath is my no. 1 priority!
- however I am feeling 100% and I am off for three days! - I’m doing day trips to Bath and London and I am very excited!
- the only thesis work I’ve done is writing down random thoughts that I get at work in the notes app on my phone - but that’s also fine as it’s been a busy week and I’ve been working hard!
(edit) - I also applied for a volunteer position at the Ashmolean (where I volunteer on Sundays) which involves event planning for the members!
technically the last day before the semester starts, although I don’t actually have to show up to anything until class on wednesday night. I ran a bunch of errands this morning, took a nap, and then made enough food to hopefully last the rest of the week.
edit: also bought enough comics to last…well, maybe a month into the semester.
I haven’t been good about posting this week. Here’s a summary of what I did:
In lab:
SO MUCH mouse colony management, which is paying off because a litter just dropped today with genetics crosses that I am VERY interested in. Just 30 days until they’re ready for experiments
Tweaking staining and imaging protocols for the morphology experiments. Unfortunately, one of the moms ate her newborn litter (AKA my backup litter), so I have to wait at least another month for new litters to drop from this cross
Made sure our masters student stays on schedule with his experiments.
In life:
Had a tick bite scare from our night at the drive-in movie theatre in south Jersey. It doesn’t fit the timeline or behaviour of tick biting, and it actually matches really well with severe allergic reaction to mosquito bites, which fits the timeline and the number of bites, but the two bites I got immediately developed into bullseye rashes, which is the telltale sign of Lyme infection I went to the urgent care, and they prescribed my doxycycline just in case. I’m all for using antibiotics responsibly, but I’m willing to take my chances with MRSA and other antibiotic-resistant bacteria if it means I don’t get Lyme disease.
Set up my new bullet journal! Things I’m excited for in this journal are:
Separate sections for wedding planning and interior planning for our next apartment.
Separate sections for my thesis work. Inside, I have an overview page with my three aims and current projects I’m working on. Then I have one page dedicated to each project to track the protocol tweaking, progress achieved, and/or changings of project directions. The rest will be threaded to these first few pages.
We’ve also been getting ready for our engagement party this weekend!
Made it through week 3 of the challenge! I still need to bake something this week. I have some frozen cookie dough from last week, so I am thinking about making some of those because I’m low on energy. I do really want to make merengue cookies. But I still need to make macaroons again!
My research group grad student office is moving and we’re trying to schedule or weekly research group meeting time (my job). So, I’ve been distracted by sending emails all day. I even tried to work from home to avoid that discussion, but I was not successful. I am trying to work through the struggle to transcribe at least 10 minutes of my video today. And hopefully have the whole transcription done by the end of the weekend.
read a French translation of Alain de Lille’s De planctu naturae & did review sheet
emailed two profs
Of my weekly goals, I did successfully read three books this week (the two above + Boethius), and I did reach out to three profs, but I haven’t yet done the 20-min free write. Along with that on my to-do list for the weekend is getting my room in (more) order and doing four hours of work.
this week my goal was to go to the library at least three times to make a dent in my reading. however, on tuesday i found out the library was on summer schedule, and only open while i was at work. it was a real bummer, but i’ve so far managed to turn off all notifications and spend two evenings just reading at home, which has been nicer than expected. if i can block out some time and do the same tomorrow, i’ll consider my goal reached (i think i’ll aim for two 3h sessions).
other things that have happened this week:
my usual cleaning on thursday (bathroom, tidy, vacuum)
post office (picked up emily wilson’s translation of the odyssey which i’m excited to read!)
started learning italian on duolingo (i’ve been sleeping poorly & waking up at odd hours, so i’ve been spending a lot of time on the app. if any of you use it, let me know if i can add you on there!)
found out there’s going to be a lizzie mcguire revival on the same day taylor swift’s new album came out so i’m reliving my best high school days
had a friend over for lunch today & spent time catching up
also made bean paste for tomorrow (haven’t made it in so long but it was my favourite go-to meal as a student because tasty+cheap+quick & if u put it on toast that counts as a warm meal right)
today did not go as planned. I was supposed to do surveys at a museum, but my researcher badge expired and I can’t get a new one until monday. as frustrating as this is, I really didn’t want to talk to strangers today, and I had plenty to do at home, including catch up on sleep. now the plan is to answer some emails, read a book, and relax.
tfw quals get you down and you don’t feel like your brain knows how to math anymore, so you take a break by working on an overdue bday gift for a friend. i am definitely not looking forward to taking the algebra one in three days.
for tomorrow:
start working on algebra cheat sheet
do a timed practice qual for algebra if possible
go outside for god’s sake
i’m serious please go outside
u need to get out of ur apartment at least once each day
gradblr challenge, end of week 3:super overwhelmed. falling into a pattern each week of setting myself seemingly reasonable research goals and then being disappointed when I get to sunday and realise I forgot about them. maybe I shouldn’t be too hard on myself about today, though, since a lot of stuff changed out of my control. did a LOT of steps today, at least, and finally bought some stuff I’ve been meaning to buy for a couple of months. I hope your week has been good ♡
the next week is going to be Fuuuuuuuucked unless i literally just sit down in front of my computer and work for 12 hours straight for 5 days. which i will do, because i have to.
basically we are looking at:
finish reading a bunch of articles for my directed reading course, input into annotated bibliography, finish analysis of annotated bib (due 29th)
fix up annotated bib for major area reading course and add analysis to each major section (due 31st)
finish and submit sshrc insight grant (due 30th)
make up rubric for my students’ various final assignments
Diss work has been put on hold for what seems like forever, but really has only been like, 2 days max. I did some note-organizing/typing Friday morning before going in for a shift, and then Friday night was date night – but first, we went to the gym and then played with our friends’ cat. They’re out of town for a week, so we’re taking care of her. She likes to sniff your face very closely and thoroughly, likes to play with lasers and sunlight reflected off of cell phone faces, and she was very cooperative when I asked her to lay by the door for a photo.
Saturday morning I tried to organize a little, and work on getting my planner together. I worked a double that day, and my legs hurt so much by the end of it. I forgot to bring my book for my break, so that was a bit of a bummer, and made me feel like I squandered some time. I realize now that I left my book in my library carrel, so it’s not like I had it at home to begin with….
This morning I got back into my Sunday-morning-yoga routine, paired with some pumpkin spice tea. Yoga was hard this morning. It got easier, but even just stepping back into a lunge felt really difficult. I need to tend to my body and joints a little more; show my muscles more love. We also cleaned the apartment and went grocery shopping in the morning, then met up with a friend for lunch and to catch up, and now I’m working on campus for the rest of the day. zl has a bunch of stuff to do to prep his next experiment, and he has to make an overnight culture, so we might be here pretty late – which is perfect for me to get work in and ease my mounting diss-related anxiety. And when we need a break, we’ll go play with the kitten.
There aren’t many days left before #gradblrchallenge ends, and I feel a bit bad that I haven’t been good about posting. Then again, I did prefer July since I had way more going on then—
I did finish edits today. I’m running it through my housemate to make sure that it’s coherent to those outside of my discipline, ahaha. Then it’s off to the editor, hopefully no more edits, and I twiddle my thumbs until next year to see it published…!
My kimchi is fermenting well, though it’s going to be a long while before it’ll be really good. I took some out to quicken the maturing process, because I wanted to make kimchijeon (kimchi pancakes). I also made kimbap (Korean “sushi” rolls), and rabokki (spicy, stir-fried ramen noodles and rice cakes), as seen in the image. This was for a casual dinner with my friends, and it was a relief to hear that they enjoyed everything.
[Image Description No. 1: A Word document is open on a computer monitor. There is a white/silver keyboard in front. A black coffee mug is to the left on top of a coaster. There are sticky notes of varying colors to the right.]
[Image Description No. 2: On a wooden table, there are three dishes of Korean food. To the bottom left, there is kimchijeon, which has an orange shade. In the middle is kimbap. The inside of each roll is multicolored and stacked on top of each other. To the top right is rabokki in a blue pot. There are prongs sticking out if. To the top left, there is a glass cup.]
