Assistantship Stuff

This year I have a new assistantship. When I first started at MSU, I began working with a faculty member in the department, who I came to really love. Jim and I worked together about a year and a half and then he retired. When that happened, the chair of my department told me that the Office of Budget and Planning (OPB) on campus was looking for an assistant and she recommended me to their department. I was slightly confused because I knew I had a post in the College of Education, so I thought, "are they trying to get rid of me?" After some clarification, the department chair said she thought it might be good experience for me to work over there, and if I moved there for my assistantship I would have a routine. With Jim leaving, I may have bounced around a bit in the department, so I decided to take the assistantship in OPB.

Erickson Hall, the College of Education. Come visit!
I'm on the second floor, room 203 :) 

Now, fast forward to early summer 2016. My friend who was working with the assistant dean in the college of education asked if I'd be interested in talking with the assistant dean because she would need a new grad assistant - my friend was graduating and would be leaving that position. I had met Sam, the assistant dean my first year. She had done work in the nonprofit sector, and when I was writing my master's thesis, I remember using some of her research. So we met because of our common interests in the nonprofit sector. She asked if I'd want to come back to the college of education and work for her. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance. My work over in OPB was fine, it wasn't particularly my favorite thing, though. While in OPB I worked primarily on my supervisor's research agenda (often administrators in higher education who have PhDs still work on their own research). Sam also is a PhD who would like to continue to be engaged in her research, and since her's is similar to what I used to do, it was a good fit. With that said, I am now back in the college of education, reading and reading and reading about nonprofit stuff and able to learn more from another individual about designing research, organizing studies, collecting data, and putting together manuscripts. I'm very thankful to have had such a diversity of assistantship experience, and I'm very glad to be back home in the college of education.

FEGUNL + 1

Our Relay Team Shirts - with an image of one of
our professors who led the FEGU trip.
He's one of a kind.

This past Sunday a group of my friends and I ran a relay team marathon. (I didn't run a marathon, I ran a part of the marathon equaling 4.8 miles). To provide some context for why I have a team of people who are willing to run a relay like this, I need to go back to my trip to the Netherlands. While in the Netherlands, my friend Heather and I would consistently wake up and go running. I went about every other day, and we ran through the streets of Maastricht, Paris, and Amsterdam. About half-way through our trip, we encouraged others to join us, and others did. Three other folks would come running with us about twice a week, and we called ourselves casually the FEGUNL running team. (FEGU stands for Fellowship to Enhance Global Understanding, NL, obviously, Netherlands). One of our FEGUNL runners who joined us is a serious runner, so it was natural to have her join us, even though she prefers to run in the evening.

Now fast-forward to September. A couple of weeks ago we all drove up to Alma, MI, where there was a 5k. Why Alma, an hour away? One of our FEGUNL running team members is a cyclo-cross racer, and hosts his own race there. So, we ran the little 5k that went along with it. Well, I didn't because I was nursing a pulled calf muscle. But Kevin, along my three other FEGU friends did run. (Kevin we joked was our "plus 1" for the FEGU team). Then that evening, by a random conversation about running as a relay team and passing a baton, we immediately decided to sign up for the Capital City Marathon, Relay, 5K and 10K. We hustled to make tshirts, sort out who would run which leg, and make a plan. I, personally, am now hooked on running these kinds of relays. Especially now we have matching tshirts. So I foresee another relay in our collective future.

Skunk Family

We have a skunk family. In late July, Kevin went out to discard the compost into the bin, it was dark, and he came back in and said he startled a skunk and a raccoon in the back yard. For a few evenings after that, we saw both the skunk and raccoon, but over a period of time we only really saw the skunk. And I admit, I love skunks. I think they're quite attractive little animals (except for their beady little eyes I am reminded). The other amazing thing is that we had two ground hornet nests along the house, and one day we came out and it was all dug up. The hornet nest scattered all over and a big hole left. Then two days later, the other nest dug up. With some research, we learned that skunks will go after hornet nests. Good news for us!

Then a few nights ago, as I walked out to the deck to join Kevin for an evening chat around 9pm, our little skunk came strolling along the back fence and proceeded to chow down on the bird seeds that drop from the feeder. Kevin and I squealed, and admired the little skunk. And I grabbed my phone and took pictures. Then, about 7 minutes later, another skunk came up from the same side, then another, then another. And soon, there were four skunks in our backyard, obviously youngish ones because they proceeded to pounce on one another and make a funny little squeaking sound. And they didn't stink at all. It was weird and wonderful. But now, I admit, that two nights in a row they have been unseen but OH MAN can we smell them from our bedroom window. I've come to like these little skunks. And I've leanred they give you fair warning if they are about to spray (they stomp their little feet and flare their tail - not that we have been sprayed, but we've done our internet research). For now, I peek out the back door to the deck each night now, looking for our little skunk family, but we haven't seen them all together again. Except when I get that whiff around midnight.

It's kind of hard to see all four skunks on the right, but you can kind of make out their shapes

Room by Room

Same fan, but much better.

Now that our bathroom is done (I'm just going to call it done, even though we still haven't put the vent fan in) we are moving on to the next room. The spare bedroom next to the bathroom was our staging room as we redid the bathroom, and now we are finally putting it back together. Putting it back together means putting up new trim because all the trim was super gross quarter-round from 1984, and fixing up the closet and putting a fresh coat of paint on. Additionally, it meant doing a little DIY on the ceiling fan. We have four atrocious ceiling fans in this house, and are doing something about it. Finally. For the spare bedroom, we removed the fan and replaced it with a regular dome light shade. Then we took the entire ceiling fan and I took some spray paint to it, chose new shades, flipped the fan blades, and added Edison bulbs and actual pull chains and voila! A ceiling fan we can live with, now in our bedroom. Hopefully by the end of next weekend we'll be ready to set all the furniture back into the room, and put the TV in there, where we have a spot for it along the wall. It will officially be our spare bedroom/TV room!

Spare room/TV room with everything shoved to the center so we can paint. Look at
that lovely new trim! So modern! And the wall color we are in love with (although
this picture doesn't do it justice). It's called "Oats and Honey" :)

It Begins

Yesterday I had my first day of class. During the morning at home, before I left for campus, I apparently was sighing a lot. I came into the kitchen while Kevin was making lunch and let out a big sigh, and didn't even know it until he pointed it out. I felt a little like Pooh Bear, "Oh Bother." But once I got to campus, I started to feel a little better, knowing that this had to happen. I have finally found a best way to get to and through campus on my bike, and I'm really happy about it. After two years of slightly tweaking my route, I have found the one with the straightest path, and the least amount of possible mis-haps with phone staring students and drivers. So, that's a big plus about going to campus now.

My books this semester, aawwww yeah.

First on my agenda yesterday was a meeting with my supervisor. This year I started a new assistantship with the Assistant Dean in the College of Education. For the last year I was working in the Institutional Studies (IS) department on campus. It is in the administration building, and is basically like a big information data hub. I had the opportunity to move my assistantship back to the College of Education and I jumped at the chance. Not because my assistantship with IS was particularly bad (although there were some spells when I wondered, "what the heck?!?") but because I really missed being around my own college. I felt disengaged from people, and knowing that I will soon be finished with coursework, I want to have a way to stay connected. Physically being back is great. I'll go more into my work with the Assistant Dean, but for now, I'm happy to be back.

Second on my agenda for the day was my first class. I'm taking a course called Case Study Research. It is a methods class, one that will teach me a particular way to gather data, organize, it, and prepare research. I'm excited about this course because it will help me get close to completing a research study from this summer. Best of all, the professor is amazing. I've had her before, and am so glad to be back in class with her.

Last on my list for the day was doing some reading for my independent study. I am taking two courses this semester, the Case Study Research course, and also an independent study. For this one, I developed a syllabus where I will read through sociological theory. I need to have a good grounding in theory because, well, I'm super interested in it, but I also want to have knowledge about it to know which will be the best for my dissertation. So when I got home, I curled up with Karl Marx.

It's going to be a packed semester. I'm also a teaching assistant in a master's level class with my advisor, although the class is online so it's rather interesting. But in terms of my course work, even though I'm only taking two courses, I have a lot to write, and a lot to finish, and then a lot to prepare for if I am to begin writing my dissertation proposal in the spring. For now, I'll focus on reading and writing for assignments.

#onelastweekend

Kevin doing the fishing thing on Lake Michigan

This past weekend Kevin and I were invited to go car camping with my friend Heather and her two boys. We didn't have any plans for the long Labor Day weekend, aside from house projects and my own complaining because the semester is starting. I also had plans to spend at least one night waking up every two hours with anxiety about school. But other than that, not much planned. So when Heather invited us, we thought, sure! We went for one night (because we still needed to do some house projects) and had a great time. Granted, this is not the typical car camping of the Blalock-Tracy household. This was an entirely new Midwest experience. We're talking campsites on top of one another, small beaches packed with families and sunbrellas, and lawn chairs, lots of RVs, and most of all, ORVS. Yes. Off-Road-Vehicles. We went to a place called Silver Lake, about two hours away that is just near Lake Michigan. Between Silver Lake and Lake Michigan are the giant sand dunes that I've come to love about Michigan. (It's one of the secret wonders of this state).

At these particular sand dunes, there are lots of off-road vehicles. LOTS. TONS. So we went to the beach one afternoon, then the next morning we walked up and down some of the dunes, and then spend about an hour sitting on top of the dunes watching the ORVs scream down the hills with their 'Merica Flags. And some unfortunate Confederate Flags. And one Don't Tread On Me Flag. Heather and I joked that we should get a big truck, paint it hot pink and wave a giant "I'm With Her" Flag. That might shake things up a bit.

Other than ORV watching, we did enjoy the sand dune hiking, along with some evening fishing thanks to Kevin, and since we had Heather's kids, (ages 9 and 11) we indulged in go-cart racing too. Not a bad way to spend part of Labor Day Weekend. I thus dedicate my last summer weekend to the economic achievements of American Workers! Thanks Workers!