News

I gave my first hour long seminar/my qualifying project presentation last Friday. It went much better than I expected — which I guess wasn’t that hard of a feat since I thought I would crash and burn. Why I thought that, I really have no idea because I know my shit. But I feel like I even surprised the faculty that came with how well I did — I handled their questions and the fact that they decided to butt into my presentation to ask me some of the questions mid-presentation. Anyway. I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say I’m officially qualified to get my PhD, aside from the paperwork that needs to be filed. So, yay.

That night Greg and I decided that we would move in together when my current lease is up. I ran it by the parents and my dad wasn’t exactly thrilled, but gave his blessing. My mother on the other hand was so excited she could barely contain herself after we got off the phone. She called my brother and sister and told them to call me so I could tell them. It’s exciting, but it’s not like we’re getting married or having a baby right now. It was kind of hilarious how she reacted. In a very, very good way. I’m both excited and nervous to take our relationship to this new level… It’s sort of unexplored territory for me. I lived with George part time one summer in college, but I don’t really count that as living together — considering we also shared that shit hole of an apartment with 2 other people (who were the actual people on the lease) and I only stayed there during the week to take classes and work — I didn’t really have any amount of my things there other than shampoo and my toothbrush and clothes for the week. Where in this case my name will be on the lease and it will be my home.

I’m excited because it really means we’re moving forward, which is a great feeling. I’m nervous because what if we can’t stand each other and then where would I go? I honestly don’t think that will happen, but nothing in life is a guarantee. We already spend almost every spare moment together as it is, so I guess it won’t be all that different. It sure will be nice to get out of this undergraduate infested apartment complex though. I’m sick of having my walls vibrate when it’s party time or Call of Duty time. It’ll be nice to be coming home to someone I that I’m happy to see, rather than having to worry whether or not it’s boy talk time. Or if there will be some random dude in my house with my current roommate. She’s a nice girl, but so stereotypical in makes me cringe.

Oh! One more exciting career note: I was asked to review a grant, which in itself is sort of odd since I’m only a graduate student, but I finally started reviewing it today (as in, I read through the whole thing and will probably submit my review tomorrow). The paper I got published last year? Totally cited in there. That’s the first time I’ve seen my work cited and it was pretty awesome! That also explains why I was asked to review, although I think they still believed I was more than a student. Which, of course, is pretty flattering.

I suppose I should try to get some more work done.