confessions

All right, it's about time I come clean. I've been keeping something from you. Well, two somethings. 

One is my recent vanilla bean discovery. Okay, to be clear, I didn't discover vanilla beans, obviously. I mean, I started using vanilla beans in my baking, and I'm not sure I can go back to the extract. It all started last August when I got tired of shelling out $5 for a 4 ounce bottle of vanilla extract (and that's at Trader Joe's, where it's the cheapest!). I learned about making homemade vanilla extract here, so I decided to buy myself some cheap vodka, make it myself, and save some money. I ordered a bunch of vanilla beans off of Amazon, but then the job market happened and I forgot all about using them. And I continued shelling out $5 for vanilla. Then, about a month ago, I ran out of extract and finally got around to using a few vanilla beans and making some extract. It's embarrassing that it took me so long, because using vanilla beans is super easy (split in half and scrape out the seeds) and so is making extract (rinse 3 spent beans and put in a jar of cheap vodka). Anyway, using vanilla beans in my baking instead of extract is life changing. It's so amazing. 

And speaking of life changing, I got a job. I'll be starting next fall at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. The academic job market is tough, and the stars certainly aligned for me. This job is a really good fit for me, both professionally and personally, and that doesn't happen a whole lot. If you pursue an academic job, you are at the mercy of location. For the most part, you don't get to choose where you live. You really can't say to yourself, "I'll work in Dallas, Texas and nowhere else" because if you restrict yourself too much geographically, it's unlikely you'll get a job. It's not like applying to college or even graduate school, or like applying to most jobs. Turnover is low, and jobs are very specialized. Imagine, for example, that instead of posting an ad that says "Now hiring," Target posted an ad that said "Now hiring an associate to work in the kitchen section, specializing in pots and pans." You might be thinking, well, someone working in electronics surely has the skills to transfer to the kitchen section, but that's not the case because someone who's spent the past 7 years or so specializing in electronics would not be qualified to sell pots and pans. 

So anyway, I'm glad to have a job and I'm glad to have one that's such a good fit. I'm excited about the position and joining my future colleagues, and I'm glad to finally get back to having real winters! There are many things I'll miss about California, but for many other reasons, it's time to move on.   

october

It's not October anymore, but it was a busy month that deserves a recap. For starters, I finally left prospectus purgatory. Yes, it's true, I finally got to defend my prospectus and begin dissertation research. The defense wasn't as bad as I'd anticipated and certainly not as dreadful as I thought it would be.

I also signed up for a half marathon. I forked over $60, so there is no turning back now. Sam and I did a 5 mile run a week ago and a 6 mile run last Sunday, which is the longest that I've ever run in my life. Next Sunday, we are running 7 miles, which is a bit difficult to wrap my head around, but I'm sure we will survive.

Last weekend, we went to a fancy running store, which proved to be a dangerous place to be if you've just started running and still think it's fun. Not only did I become a VIP member of said running store, but I bought a hydration pack, some energy gels, and socks. I confess that these socks were $18 for a 3 pack. On sale. But they're supposed to prevent blisters, so how could I resist?

on teaching

Last week was our last week of summer session classes. My class went well, but it went by incredibly fast. The 10 week quarter system is nothing compared to the five week summer session. I had fun teaching and the students were great. I think they had a fun time too. We had lively discussions and watched a couple movies and television shows.

The thing is that I'm not supposed to admit that teaching was fun and enjoyable. As far as our priorities go, teaching gets short shrift. After my students thanked me for a great class, I felt like they'd been hoodwinked. What they don't know is that teaching, at least at a major research university, just isn't a priority (for grad students or their professors). It really doesn't matter. Students and/or their parents shell out thousands of dollars to learn from professors that don't prioritize teaching. Professors will still get tenure and grad students will still get a Ph.D. even if they're bad teachers. I could have had a shitty class and bored my students to tears, and it wouldn't have mattered. I wouldn't have had to engage them in lively discussions or used television shows and movies to illustrate the material we'd been learning about.

It's not always the professors or grad students' fault that teaching gets short shrift. I suppose that's just how academia works. Drew and I recently watched a movie called Tenure, starring Luke Wilson, Gretchen Mol, and that bald guy from Anchorman. Wilson played an English professor trying to get tenure. He was an excellent teacher, but had a dismal publishing career. He was offered conditional tenure, but would have to take a year off from teaching to build up his publishing record. In the end, he declined the offer and ended up taking a job teaching high school students.

The main point of the movie did not seem too far from the truth. I have seen students enter grad school with the desire to teach, only to leave after a few years to pursue high school teaching. It's the dirty secret of academia. You think teaching matters, but it really doesn't. If you really want to teach, don't go to grad school. Research and getting published are valued, not teaching; it's the message we're constantly bombarded with.

Nevertheless, I still had a good summer session. It was fun and rewarding, and I think the students got a lot out of the class. And even though teaching is supposed to take a backseat to research, I don't regret the effort I put into it.

on grad school

When I was in Las Vegas, I met up with a friend I'd made 3 years ago at ICPSR (aka stats boot camp) in Ann Arbor. We had just finished up our 2nd year of grad school. Now, she is finishing her dissertation and getting ready to start an academic job in Texas, and I'm entering my 6th year of grad school. Other stuff has has changed too. She recently got married and moved from the East Coast to Texas. Drew and I moved in together less than a year ago. We've changed in other ways too.

We talked about how different grad school is now, after our 5th year, compared to how it was after our 2nd year. It certainly is. See, you can always distinguish the younger grad students (1st and 2nd years) from the older grad students (about 4th year and above). The younger ones are bright eyed and bushy tailed. They are ambitious, excited, and optimistic. We talked about how we used to be like that. The older ones are jaded. They're tired and worn down. If they haven't left the program by now, they just want to get out and graduate. We talked about how this is what we're like now. She said "When I was younger, I always wondered why the older grad students always looked tired and stressed out." Now, we know.

When I was a 2nd year, I shared an office with a 5th year. She was jaded, worn down, and tired of the bullshit. I wondered if I'd end up like her someday. I did. The thing is that younger grad students never understand that this is how it will eventually end up. And you can't tell them this either. They'll never believe it. If my officemate had told me I'd feel like her someday, I wouldn't have believed it. No, not me. I'll be different. Ha!

And this is why older grad students can't be friends with younger grad students. Like, really friends. Of course, everyone can hang out and play nice. But the thing is that grad school sucks a lot, and nobody wants those older students raining on the younger ones' parade, not that they want to do that anyway. And while the older ones understand what the younger ones are going through, the reverse is never true. To them, our experiences are unfathomable. Until you've been through it yourself, you can never understand.

I imagine that on some level, being in a Ph.D. program must be like the military. Nobody else knows what it's like unless they've been through it themselves (and I mean a Ph.D. program, not MBA, not medical school or law school, and certainly not M.A. programs). Which is sad, because being in a Ph.D. program is already isolating. The last thing we need is for it to be even more isolating. But maybe that's why, when you make good friends that really and truly know what you're going through, you all hang on for dear life, throwing each other life rings and trying to just help each other survive.

just say no

After 5 years of being in a Ph.D. program, I cannot, in good conscience recommend that anyone go to graduate school. I've known this for the past year, but I didn't really know it. When my students ask for advice about grad school, I'm vague and generic. I don't outright dissuade them, but I'm no grad school cheerleader, at least not for a Ph.D. program.

I hadn't fully realized or admitted all of this until yesterday. I went to a birthday party and met a guy halfway through his undergraduate career. I asked him what he studied, and then he said he was thinking about graduate school. He's barely spitting out the words, but I'm already shaking my head, telling him not to do it.

Most everyone is bright eyed, bushy tailed, and optimistic when they enter a Ph.D. program, but somewhere along the way, we get jaded. Along the way, we sell out and sell our soul. It takes a few years, but we learn that grad school is nothing like what we thought it would be. I haven't yet decided if it's the smart ones who get out or stick with it.

replanting

This week, Drew and I uprooted all of our plants in the garden, added loads of compost and manure to the soil, and replanted. Our plants were turning a yellow hue, which according to the internet could be a result of at least 2 things: 1) overwatering or 2) lack of nutrients. We're assuming that it's both, so we amended the soil and replanted all of our plants. And we're going to go easy on the watering.

We didn't scrap the plants and start over, so I guess you could say we were doing some revising, reframing, and rethinking. This has become a common theme in my life, as I am currently doing the same thing to my dissertation prospectus. I'm told that this stuff happens all the time and that it's part of the whole process. Damn that pesky p word.

When we finished up in the garden yesterday, we looked around at our work, shrugged our shoulders and said "well, at least we tried," meaning that if our plants die now, we can't say that we didn't try to save them. And then we both laughed because while this philosophy might work for plants, it shouldn't be applied to say, raising children.

on picking a dissertation topic

Picking a dissertation topic is often compared to picking a life partner, and well, I can see how this is true. It's recommended that you pick a topic you feel passionate and excited about because you're going to be spending an awful lot of time together.

But here's the catch: when picking a dissertation topic, you can't dawdle (some would say the same about picking a life partner). The reality is that it feels like picking a dissertation topic and then actually doing it is like the equivalent of telling someone that they have to get married by the time they are 30. It may be okay if you're 31 or 32, but above all, you don't want to be a 33 year old spinster.

In a similar vein, the message I get from my department is that finishing your Ph.D. in 5 years is ideal. Okay, you can take 6 or 7 years, but you don't want to be an 8th year dissertation spinster. I don't know what happens in your 9th+ years. Maybe you fall into dissertation purgatory. That is, if you haven't already.

Call me a late bloomer, but here I am nearing the end of my 5th year, still searching for a dissertation topic. I dated around a lot, trying out different topics. At the end of fall quarter, I thought I'd found the One, but it proved to be unruly and I just couldn't make it work. We parted ways (amicably of course), and I headed in a different direction. In winter quarter, I mistakenly thought I'd found the One again. This time, I tried really hard to make it work with topic #2, but to no avail. It was like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. It was a difficult break up, but I finally said good bye in the beginning of the spring quarter. In the end, we wanted different things, we were beginning to drift apart, and I was losing sight of what was really important to me. I found it difficult to move on, but I got back out there and started playing the field again.

I went back to an ex, a topic I'd toyed around with last fall. I think it's going to be different this time around. I'm not going to be so quick to throw in the towel, and I'll try not to be so controlling this time. I'll let my dissertation topic run its course and be who it wants to be. I'll be there to guide it along, but I'll let it take whatever shape it wants to take. But it had better move quickly. After all, the dissertation clock is ticking.

on copyediting

My dear friend is this close to finishing a revision of her dissertation and defending it. This weekend I proofread two chapters and did my best to copyedit them. Usually when I read other people's work, I'm reading it for content and so I can provide feedback, not for copyediting purposes. And thank goodness for that, because it would way too difficult to read for content and copyedit at the same time.

This experience left me with a newfound respect for my advisor. How on earth does she read my work in order to provide feedback and copyedit it at the same time? Bless her soul.

on grad school

One of my dearest friends has a new boyfriend. She is a grad student; he is not. She wondered how she could possibly explain what grad school is like to him. I said: "Just tell him that grad school is a perpetual feeling of inadequacy." Sounds harsh, but it's pretty much the truth.

It's not an easy task to try to get people to understand what Ph.D. programs are like. I can see why. Grad school experiences differ by school, degree programs, and departments, among other things. I think that most people think that graduate school is like college, but on steroids. It's not. Sure, grad school is classes, reading, writing, and constant homework, but that's where the similarity ends. If college is like dining in a restaurant, then a Ph.D. program is like learning to be the chef.

I am always curious as to why people go to grad school, particularly a Ph.D. program. What sort of person subjects her/himself to the emotional rollercoaster of grad school? What sort of person subjects her/himself to constant criticism? What does this say about us? About me? I always wonder if we really know what we're getting ourselves into. I mean, we can think we know what grad school is like, but we don't really know what it's like until we're there. I imagine that it's like getting married. You may think you're prepared and that you know what it's going to be like, but I imagine that there are some surprises.

I recently heard grad school described as a hazing process, and I think this sums it up quite nicely. It really is a hazing process, and well, if you survive, then welcome to academia. When I started grad school, everyone said you have to have a thick skin to survive, and I didn't quite understand. Now I do. Everything you write, everything you think, and everything you say is subject to critique, all in the name of "contributing to knowledge." Whenever I get feedback on my papers, I sometimes have to remind myself that the critiques are meant to help me improve, not hurt my feelings. And it works. We learn, we get better, we improve. I've heard grad school described as a video game; once you master one level, you move onto the next. This too is true.

I'll end this on a positive note. I just finished a full draft of my prospectus, which is like a detailed research design of my dissertation. It's like my road map of what I intend to study and how I intend to study it. Coming up with my research question seemed like it took forever, and sometimes I wasn't sure that there was one out there that I'd like to answer. But it turns out that there is. It didn't just fall from the sky (these things never do, as my adviser, DK, says); I found it after a lot of reading, writing, and rewriting.

After I submitted my draft, DK congratulated me and told me that she was really looking forward to reading it. She asked if I felt good about getting it done, and I really hadn't thought about it. Sometimes our accomplishments seem so anti-climactic, and many times we forget to pat ourselves (and each other) on the back. But amidst the criticism and negativity of grad school, it feels great when your adviser (and others, of course) pats you on the back and recognizes that you've cleared a hurdle, no matter how small, even if you yourself don't recognize it. Grad school does have its rewards.

destination dissertation...sort of

About a month ago, I got a book called "Destination Dissertation: A Traveler's Guide to a Done Dissertation." Right away, I read the introduction and chapters 1, 2, and 13 (chapter 13 was about adviser-advisee relationships so that's why I skipped ahead). I'm not sure if I should read into this, but I haven't picked up the book since. I'm afraid that not finishing a book on how to do a dissertation does not bode well for actually finishing a dissertation.

Or perhaps, and I suspect that this is the case, the reason that I have not picked up the guide book is because I'm actually working on my dissertation. That's how I'll interpret my loss of interest in the book. I'm a glass-half-full kind of girl.

I joined a dissertation support group a couple weeks ago, which has proven to be quite beneficial (and probably way better for my progress than any guide book). We meet every week, talk about how progress and hang ups, and set weekly goals. It's good to get support from people who are at similar stages.

I'm working steadily on my dissertation prospectus, and I had an exciting moment a couple weeks ago. I think I finally, finally have a solid research question and I'm on my way to drafting a full prospectus. It is nerdily exciting.

it's the little things

This quarter, I am TAing a class with about 120 students. I have no discussion sections, but I sort of make up for it with grading (an annotated bibliography assignment, a policy paper, and an exam). A week ago last Tuesday, the students turned in 8 to 10 page papers. Yesterday, they took a mid term exam. After finishing his exam, one of the students asked me when they would receive their papers. I said next Tuesday, and he asked if I was grading all of them. I said yes, and he gave me a heartfelt thank you. It made my day.

school!

Today was the first day of classes. I wish I had something more thoughtful to say here, but I don't. But it is sure to amuse you. It's just that I've been thinking about the past 4 years I've spent in grad school, and for the past few weeks, I've been running into people I haven't seen all summer, and so I have decided that the following are my greatest accomplishments in the last 4 years:

1. I have no gray hairs. Yup, my hair is still completely black. I find a single random gray hair every few months, but no more since I began grad school.
2. I have not gained any weight. Sure, my weight has fluctuated by 5-7 pounds, but for the most part, I am the same size and weight as I started 4 years ago.
3. I am not balding. Still have a full head of hair. Shorter perhaps, but still a full head.

ph.d. candidate

It's about time that I tell you that I took my advancement exam and passed a few weeks ago. After filing the paperwork and forking over $90, I officially became a Ph.D. candidate yesterday.

Our advancement exams are oral exams with 5 committee members. The exam lasted about an hour and a half. It's tough and it's challenging, which I suppose is why it's called an exam and not say, a walk in the park. I'm not going to lie here, it was probably the least enjoyable experience of my life. I mean, if you gave me a choice between taking my oral exam again and say, being stuck in an elevator with George W. Bush, I'd probably choose the latter. I'm being a tad dramatic here; looking back, it wasn't so bad. It's kind of like a performance review, or an assessment. It's like checking in with your committee to see where you're at in the program, what you know, and what you still need to work on.

In my department, orals have been called a "black box." We've never seen an exam before, so we have no idea what to expect. We don't receive sample questions. Everyone has a committee of 5, so the chances that any two committees will have the same composition are very, very slim. (I wonder if it's ever happened) So, as my chair said, students' exams are really tailored to them. Thus, no two are alike and the standards are variable. The standards for the exam range from "a walk in the park" to "kick your ass." You can see why we call this a black box.

I don't think orals are something to be feared. Everyone has to do them, and everyone survives. I mean, they're called a black box, not a Bermuda Triangle. When I began grad school, the oral exam was something that was difficult for me to conceptualize. It was a mystery. What does it mean to know the scholarship in your field? What are my field/s? What do I put on a reading list and how will I read it all? Do I have to know every detail? Who should be on my committee? And so on. Here's the thing: strangely, grad school has made me more relaxed and calm. I have my moments, but overall I've become more laid back. And so I've trusted that things will come together, and I'll figure out who I want to work with and what I want to study. And it worked. Somehow, the pieces came together.

I got a lot of advice about orals, and many said that the best you can do is just be prepared. Sounds obvious, but it's true. I took notes, made flashcards, summarized the literature in my fields, and practiced aloud with Drew and some others. Other students said that I would reach a point at which I would "just know" (apparently, orals are like picking a mate) that I'm prepared and ready. This again is true. I did reach this point at which I knew that I was as ready as I ever could be.

Many friends passed along words of wisdom, and even though we all had different experiences, it made orals seem less scary. And practicing aloud was really important and really helped me prepare. (special shout out to Drew who listened to me and asked questions every night for 3 weeks preceding my exam. I don't know why I did that. He doesn't read my blog.) And, this might be difficult, but I think it's important to be optimistic and think positively. As a friend said, orals is like a diagnostic. It's like a check up to see where you're at, where you're going, and what you need to do. And remember, your committee is on your side and wants you to succeed. This is really difficult to remember, especially during the exam (and after). But you must tell yourself that they like you because at some point during the exam, you might look out and think to yourself "who are these people, why do they appear to dislike me, and why do they keep trying to throw me under the bus?"

So now I'm working on coming up with a dissertation topic. It can be daunting to think about how I've passed many small hurdles, but the biggest one is yet to come.

an r & r

I'm going to take a moment and do some bragging on my blog. I mean, it is my blog, so I guess I can do this. I found out the other day that my paper on abortion rates received an R & R at a journal that will remain unnamed here. An R & R is a revise & resubmit, which means that I received a bunch of comments and suggestions from three anonymous reviewers; I must now take this feedback, revise my paper, and resubmit it to the journal. An R & R may be the best-case scenario in the journal submission process because well, it's better than an outright rejection, and an outright acceptance is pretty unlikely. So now I'll revise my paper, resubmit it, and cross my fingers for an acceptance!

By the way, this experience has given me a newfound appreciation for our qualifying paper process. Yes, we write three papers and sometimes it's frustrating that we must jump through these hoops to get a Ph.D., but seriously, the department isn't kidding when it says that this process prepares you for the journal submission process. For my qualifiers, I had to work with two professors on a paper, I got their feedback on each draft, and I revised my paper until they signed off and approved it. Sound familiar? Keep your fingers crossed for me!

year 4

With all of the baking, the yelping, the baseball, the crocheting, my summertime discovery of the Newport Beach Public Library, and other random excursions, you have got to be wondering if I'm still in grad school or how I have time to even be in grad school. Rest assured, I'm still here, and in case you're keeping track, I started my fourth year about six weeks ago.

I'm not taking classes anymore, a moment that I have been awaiting for about the past year and a half. I'm TAing for Constitutional Law: Individual Liberties for the dean of the law school, a constitutional law god. I'm enjoying the freedom that comes from not taking classes, and I like working on my own papers instead of being responsible for weekly readings, reaction papers, and course papers for classes that are sometimes not useful. I've heard that some students face the difficulty of staying motivated and disciplined once they finish classes, but I think I'm handling the unstructured quarter pretty well so far. I'm doing a lot of reading, looking for a dissertation topic and figuring out where I fit in. I've found a home in public law, and it seems like a good fit and a good way to study women's rights, gender, race, and women's sexuality.

So there you have it. I'm staying busy, but mostly productive. I'll let you know when something more interesting happens.

under review

Today, 2 fellow graduate students and I sent out our paper for journal submission. We worked incredibly hard over the last month and basically wrote an entire paper to make the April 30th deadline. I learned a lot in the past month about writing, editing, journal submission, and linear growth curve models. It is a relief to have sent it off, but of course, I have other stuff to work on. All right, that's all I've got for now.

29 pages

I know that this is counterintuitive, but I am glad that the weekend is over. Why? Because I spent last weekend working on two papers. I finally got a draft of my anti-rape paper to DM, on Monday, as promised. It was 29 pages. I had no idea that I could write that many pages. You see, when professors impose any sort of page number expectations for class papers, I'm always the person that comes up short. So, you can see my surprise.

I'm working on a paper with 2 other people, and we have been working hard this past week, writing and editing. Here's a funny story: One of the coauthors, Chris, and I were editing the introduction today. (side note: His fiance, K, and I are both DM's students, and DM challenges us to be good, clear writers) So, Chris and I were going through the intro, word for word. At one particular point, I said we need to clean up a paragraph because there were too many different points in it. I also said that we need to start off with a topic sentence that reflects the content of the entire paragraph. (obviously, this is stuff that I've learned to do from DM) And you know what Chris said? He said that this is exactly how K writes too! Good story. I thought it was really funny, and I had to share it with you.

the tasks lab on gmail

This post is going to be nerdy. There, you've been forewarned. I feel like every quarter is when I make this effort to improve how I work and figure out how to work most efficiently and effectively. I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions, but apparently, I believe in New Quarter Resolutions. Among some of my strategies to be efficient and effective: be disciplined and work during the day so that I can play at night, save the heavy lifting for the day (reading, writing) and the easy stuff for the evenings (TA stuff, easy reading), maintain hobbies (baking, knitting, crocheting), be active to relieve stress (yoga), and don't feel guilty when I'm not working (presumably because I've worked hard during the day, right?). And here's another strategy: To Do lists on the Tasks lab of my gmail account.

It is already the third week of the quarter, and I still haven't finished a new draft of my anti-rape paper. I wanted to get this new draft to DM at the end of last quarter, which was about a month ago. I have felt quite overwhelmed with it and this feeling was stalling my write up. I read a lot for the paper last quarter but recently I have felt like I had nothing to show for it, so it gave me this nagging feeling and very mild anxiety about doing a new draft.

So, during the first week of the quarter, I decided to quit stalling and get my ass in gear. I set a goal to finish the paper by a certain day, but that day has already come and gone. So I have a new goal (Monday), and I am making it happen, damn it. Let me tell you about my strategy. If every journey begins with a single step, then every paper begins with a single sentence. I have broken down the pieces of my paper into manageable sections to be completed- intro, theory, data and methods, results, discussion and conclusion. Then I go through each section and quickly freewrite and jot down notes and what I want to say in each section. This helps because then I just quickly say what I want to say without agonizing over word choice and grammar. Finally, I go through each section, cleaning it up and trying to make it sound good.

To stay on track, I am using this wonderful tool on my gmail account: the Tasks lab. It is amazing. I have a To Do list for every day of the week, a weekend To Do list, a weekly To Do list, and an Ongoing To Do list. It sounds insane, but it's helping me stay on track. I break up everything I need to do into manageable pieces and put them on my To Do list. After I complete the task, I get a nerdy sense of pleasure and accomplishment in checking off the task. So far, the Tasks lab helps me stay accountable, and at the end of the day, I get to see everything that I've accomplished. Because I've broken my anti-rape paper into small, manageable pieces, it doesn't seem so overwhelming anymore. And I WILL have a new draft on Monday. Seriously.

UCDC baby!

In all of the hectic-ness of Week 1, I almost forgot to tell you some good news. I have been accepted as a Teaching Associate for the UCDC program. Undergraduates from UCI and the UC Riverside campuses go to DC for a quarter to take a couple classes and intern. In the past, the program sent a graduate student to serve as a Teaching Assistant, but next year the grad student will instead be a Teaching Associate and be in charge of teaching two classes. So in addition to teaching two classes, I will be working on fieldwork for my to-be-determined dissertation. I will be spending one quarter in DC, and can you guess which quarter? That's right, Winter, 2010. My winter attire will finally see the light of day.

spring break

We're almost through with spring break, and it has gone by so, so fast. I spent the first half grading and I will spend the last half playing. Anyway, we start up a new quarter this Monday, and it will, of course, kick my ass and I might regret taking it easy this past week. Oh well, live and learn.

I am taking an independent study with my adviser, LD. I plan to use the time to read about gender and public law stuff, and to write my 3rd qualifying paper. Then, I am taking a law and courts class with DK. I wasn't planning to take any more classes, but I met with the prof last week, and she talked about the class. It sounded so interesting and worthwhile, so I just had to take it. Finally, I am TAing in the sociology department this quarter, Sociology of Gender for KB. I am looking forward to finally TAing a gender class.

Tomorrow I am taking a trapeze class with Carol and Lorien. Yes, you heard that right- we are taking a trapeze class. I've read about trapeze classes in magazines- in fitness magazines, not like Circus Weekly or something- and they sound like a lot of fun. And I saw this Sex and the City episode where Sarah Jessica Parker's character took a trapeze class. So, it's something that I've considered doing for quite some time now. A couple months ago I mentioned it to Carol and Lorien, and they were on board. So, tomorrow we are headed to Escondido to swing with the greatest of ease on the flying trapeze. Or something like that. Hey, at least it's not a "getting shot out of the cannon" class. Stay tuned for pictures.

On Sunday, my friend and I are going on some sort of excursion through Orange County. Not exactly sure what we're doing, but it will include a field trip to this sculpture garden in Costa Mesa. As usual, stay tuned for pictures.

Okay, I'm headed out to enjoy the last few days of spring break. Have a good weekend!