Workin' hard

Happy Wednesday everybody!  Despite everything that's happened, today was actually quite a good day.

Last night I stayed up til 5 am, trying to work on my novels, but didn't get much done.  I was tired, miserable, and desperate.  Let's face it, I'm broke (got a couple hundred or so in my bank account if I'm lucky), no job, no boyfriend, and my thesis has begun to assume the proportions of King Arthur's Quest for the Holy Grail.

Today I got out of bed at 11 am, tired, grumpy, and convinced that life was drab and gray and useless.  I turned on the computer, and FINALLY my professors had gotten back to me!  Well, two of them.  Dr. LeMaster told me where to register for GS700 (basically, you're a grad student done with classes, but need to be registered as a student for various reasons) and Dr. Lipo with corrections for the stuff I sent him two weeks ago.  And thank heaven, they were real critiques that I can understand, and I've already started rewriting it, and feeling much better about the whole thing.

I went down to campus, registered for GS700 (had to put the $351.00 on my credit card, and beg Mom and Dad to pay it when the payment is due in a couple weeks), and walked home in the broiling hot sun - okay it was only 85F, but that's a lot when you're walking a mile to the Foundation Building and a mile back!  I went swimming, and only swam for half an hour, but it was worth it. Mostly because I only got a little bit of sunburn on my nose and face even though I forgot to put on sunscreen.

Then I came upstairs, showered, and started writing (re-writing?) my statement for Dr. Lipo, and made sausages for dinner.  I did the dishes while they were cooking, so now I only have my dinner plate and the frying pan in the sink.

Now I have Restaurant Impossible on tv, and am taking a mental break by working on Rebecca for an hour or so, and then I'll go stew over my statement again.  Rinse, lather, and repeat.

So I'm going to keep jobhunting, because even if I leave soon it'll make me feel better to DO something about my penniless condition, and if I don't get to leave soon...well I'd much rather have a job, you know??  And I have a date Friday, which I'm almost afraid to be excited about in case he cancels.

My new mantra about grad school is: How would I eat an elephant?  One bite at a time!

Curiosity

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately...trying to work on my novels and failing miserably.  Doing what little I can on my thesis while Dr. Lipo is still on vacation.

But tonight I watched the JPL stream of the Curiosity landing, and man, it just brought me to tears.  I remember Dad telling me about Neil Armstrong landing on the moon.  I also remember Dad saying the guy after him said, "Well, it may have been a small step for Neil, but it's a giant leap for me!"

Of course, I get to follow Curiosity on Twitter, and we got live updates with only a 14 minute lag (only 14 minutes!!!!)...but still.  There is no comparison between the two, other than that they are giant leaps for understanding and science.

When I heard "touchdown confirmed" I just burst into tears...I really am the world's biggest crybaby.  But the emotion from JPL!  The Ustream I was watching was from inside the JPL lab and the looks on their faces...probably the look on my face if I ever found the lost kingdom of Atlantis!

Someone on one of the forums I'm on posted this, and it made me cry again, but it's also true:




I guess it makes sense that that is what's changed in America since I've been here.  Because it really has...my generation is just as much a lost generation as was Hemingway's expats in Paris.  Only who is our Hemingway?  And what are we going to do about it?