Kitchen Christmas

The empty metro on Christmas Day

We arrived in Montreal Saturday evening, and before we left town I looked at Kevin and said, "you know I really didn't get you anything for Christmas." He responded that we got one another a kitchen this year for Christmas, and that made me feel better.  This semester has been distracting for me, it was the last I had of my coursework, I had to nail down a dissertation topic, and I am pregnant. This is the first year in maybe ever that I wasn't excited about giving gifts. Giving things and making things is kind of how I communicate how I care about people and how I love them, and I didn't even have the mind or energy for it which speaks volumes about my mood. Not that I don't care about my friends and family, I just had zero energy or even interest in trying to conjure up enthusiasm for holiday festivities.

Obviously, thinking about the holidays was not on my priority list, least of all gift giving. So we decided instead to have a holiday away, and not get one another gifts. Plus, the kitchen remodel is certainly a big enough gift for both of us to have. And here we are in Montreal, with every one around us speaking French and the snow is all over and it's quite cold but we have a nice cozy little spot to relax and lounge around in. It's wonderful. We had a pizza dinner last night at a place in Old Town Montreal, and for the rest of the week we'll venture out when we want, or stay in and drink hot cocoa and eat crepes. And poutine. Mmmmmmmm.

Unseen Progress

We have been making progress on the kitchen! (As always, by "we" I mean Kevin). The progress we are making, however, is not always visible. But some big steps have taken place and I am very excited because it means more baby steps to a finished kitchen. Almost all of the electrical on one side of the kitchen is done. We've added a new switch for the ceiling light, and a few new outlets in the new half partition wall. Also, a new switch that toggles with the kitchen light is near the side door now. Of course, none of this can really be "seen" because it is all running through the studs, and it doesn't feel like anything is happening because nothing has been removed or destroyed or sanded or refurbed. But, things are happening, very important things. Like being able to turn on lights and fixing the super crappy confusing job of previous electrical work done in the house. Moreover, the handiness of Kevin never ceases to amaze me. I am in awe of his ability to figure things out and, you know, rebuild a wall and put electrical in there. Or patch in hardwood floors. Soon, I'll get to be amazed again when he redoes the plumbing on the other side of the kitchen and puts in the rest of the electrical there. He has some serious handy-man skillz. And as I always say, if this PhD thing doesn't work out, I'm seriously going to consider us opening a business to remodel houses. His ability to rework and renovate with my sense of aesthetic might make us unstoppable. Or at least possibly have a small modest business for ourselves.

Kevin acquired a lot of old books on house fixing upping, and inside one on electrical and wiring
was a chart written by his dad when he was doing the electrical work in the house Kevin grew
up in. Kevin's is on the right, the grid he created to know which wire goes where, his dad's
hand-drawn grid for the old Connecticut house on the left.
I love that we found the drawing from his dad.

Another One Bites the Dust

The squirrels were so excited about the end of
the semester they frolicked in our backyard snow

Semester over! Practically. I have one more paper to turn in that is just about done, and since it's for an independent study and I am folding it into my dissertation proposal I don't feel pressure. Rather more encouragement that I'm making progress on my proposal. So another semester bites the dust. Last week was finals week (which means nothing to me because I don't have finals), and Erickson building where the College of Education is was pretty much empty. I really love the closing of a semester. Despite having to get all last assignments in and the flurry of tidying up last paragraphs, conclusions, findings sections, etc., it always is a good feeling to end a semester. And the first morning of the first weekend after it finishes I always have a strange feeling, like I did this morning. That feeling is "what am I going to do?"

I get in a habit of waking up early each morning and starting to write immediately. I work best in the morning and even just 45 minutes of writing each day gets me pretty far on papers. This semester I almost completed writing an entire manuscript. And by writing an entire manuscript I mean taking all the data I collected over the summer, transcribing a total of 20 hours of talking (and transcribing means for every 1 hour of listening to tape, it takes me about 3 hours to type it out), writing a literature review, analyzing the data, and then writing it all up. It's the first piece of empirical work done I've from start to finish alone, and I admit I'm quite proud. I got some good feedback from my professor, and after I fix a few things I'll have my advisor read it and then I'll get it ready to send it off into the world for a reviewer at a journal to shred it to pieces. Right now, however, I savor the end of the semester, getting a solid draft of a single-authored manuscript completed, and watching the snow fall outside as I prepare to watch Netflix for a few hours to decompress.

Below Zero

This morning as I listened to the radio, the weather report stated, "It's about 19 degrees out, but it's gonna feel like it's below zero." I concur. When I step out of the car this morning as Kevin dropped me off on campus, a big gust of wind swooped into my lungs and for a split second I couldn't breathe. It definitely felt below zero. The winter weather has arrived earlier this year than usual. The first year we were here it didn't snow once until January. Then it didn't stop snowing. The second year we were here it snowed just a little at the beginning of December, and went away in a few days. Of course, once the new year began, it snowed steadily. This year, it started with a little snow fall about a week and a half ago. Then about 8 inches arrived on Sunday and another inch Monday, and well, it's currently 19 degrees out, so it's gonna be around for a while. I don't hate the snow, I just hate how it disrupts my life. And I commented this morning, "the snow can be around, just as long as the roads are clear." Thankfully, the roads are clear. At least until it snows again.

!$@#& is Getting Real

I found this image when I looked up "dissertation proposal"
and I think it's pretty funny that it comes from a wikihow
about how to write a dissertation proposal.

My fall semester is almost over. Next week I have my last class, kind of my last class ever for normal course loads. What this means is that after this semester, I have officially finished all but one of my required courses. I decided not to be an over-achiever and take more courses than I needed to (admittedly there are some that I'd love to take, but I'm using some self-restraint). The only course I have left to take is one titled Research Practicum. We all refer to this course as 995, because that is the course number - for some reason we refer to courses as numbers here, so I would say, "Have you taken 955B yet?" and what I'm asking is "did you take the qualitative methods class with Dr. Gonzales?". So 995 is up next. And this course is where I will write my dissertation proposal, and then hopefully soon after completing this course I will defend my dissertation proposal, and by defending my proposal I can then begin collecting data for my dissertation. Oh yes, this PhD !$@#& is getting REAL.

Just registering for 995, however, is not allowed. First I had to provide some outline for what my dissertation would be. And by outline I mean about 1,500 words. And then of course me being me, I wrote a lot more. My first draft I sent to my advisor, who holds the strings on whether I get approved for 995. I admit, my first draft was a bunch of random thoughts. Unfortunately, I assumed that he would understand. That would be a resounding NO. So, note to self, don't give garble-gook to my advisor, even if it all sounds like a great idea. Working through ideas on paper just isn't really the best way for someone to read my mind. While he provided some feedback, what he really should have said was, "What the *%$#! is this?"

I regrouped and sent him 3,000 words, much tidier. He responded again, and said I needed to push myself a little more. So I regrouped again and gave him 4,000 words. Have I mentioned that writing is a way that I learn? I always over-write. One of the last papers I turned in during last year, my initial draft was 10,000 words. I had to cut it down because I could only turn in 6,000. But I sure learned a lot. So anyway, I'm in. After the third draft, I nailed something down and was able to describe it well enough. However, I am modifying my dissertation a little because I decided I needed to pursue something I was more interested in, and I just wasn't completely sold on my initial idea. (Of course, once I really get that nailed down, I'll write about it more here, but it's still in the somewhat garble-gook stage). Fear not, however, I know what I'll be doing, and I just need to clarify, and it's not drastically different from what I was focused on before. Now I just have to write a little more so my advisor knows of these changes more concretely.