Academic/Economic Decisions

So I know I've strayed away from the original topic of this blog - my graduate career - but that's the fragmented way I work. Get used to it. But today I return with an update.

While most of my friends have or are graduating with their Master's degrees and either getting promoted at work or moving on to PhD programs, I continue to struggle along to finish my damn thesis. No motivation other than just wanting it to be DONE! It looked like August was to be my golden month. Finally. I could apply to be an adjunct instructor at one or multiple of the schools in town and prepare for my PhD applications in the fall. Then Monday morning happened.

Working on my project, no big deal - really quite a simple and mundane one of the type they usually give new undergrads. The iPod was playing in my ears and time was passing quickly. Then #2 boss comes and asks me to go with her to #1 boss' office. Both wonderful people whom I chat with regularly, but I've never been summoned to see them both in a closed-office meeting before. My mind started reeling - what have I done? I swear, I only check Facebook on my breaks! Am I about to be laid off? They can't do that to a student appointment, can they? Especially one of their more experienced ones? Of course, that means I cost more money than undergrads and we are facing possible budget problems here... Am I conforming to the dress code today? Boss #1 doesn't like it when we wear sandals to work... The other student-workers watch warily as I walk away.

By this time we've arrived at Boss #1's office and have all taken our seats. I initiate the short social banter required, asking Boss #1 how his visiting lecture at a Midwestern university earlier this week had gone. Soon, though, the conversation transitions "well, Dirt Worshipper, we brought you in here today to offer you an opportunity.." Great, sounds like a pyramid scheme.

But no, as I listen to them lay out their plan, it slowly sinks in that I'm being offered a promotion! The catch - I'll be promoted, provided I delay graduation until December so that I can still work on a student appointment. Oh crap. Not again. A full 3 1/2 years to complete a freakin' master's? So I delay graduation. Giving me a few extra months to work on my thesis, therefore hopefully not making my life a hellish existence as this summer was lining up to be. In return, I get a promotion in rank, almost 5 extra dollars an hour, quicker accumulation of leave, new job title, and completely new duties to learn. (Unfortunately, my new job would be to learn and cover the duties of a dearly-loved co-worker who is undergoing cancer treatment.) The new position is open-ended, expected to continue to September, but possibly extended depending on when said co-worker is able to return. I am given a week to decide, but they want to know ASAP.

Crap. Can I swallow my pride and delay graduation AGAIN? When I might have actually made it this time? If I accept, I'm being promoted without a degree when my friend/co-workers had to complete their degrees before being promoted to the same level? Is this going to cause bad blood? Can I handle the increased work hours that this will require?

On the otherhand, I wasn't looking forward to being unemployed in three and a half months. Thanks to a paperwork snafu earlier in the spring, there was no possibility of my staying on past graduation. Then I would have had to look for a job. Even an adjunct position would have to be supplemented by other job(s) to make ends meet. This would be guaranteed employment at a living wage until December, covering a time when I'm going to have the costs of new GREs and those horrendously expensive application fees for potential new programs. And, now that someone had voiced doubt I would finish by August anyway, I began to wonder myself.

All this whirled through my head for two days. Then I thought crap. Is this really a decision at all?? Barring any reasonable and convincing objections from my advisor tommorow, take the money and run!

Requisite Earth Day Post

Several bloggers out there have expressed their fatigue with all the "green" issues of magazines and the promotions of Earth Day. To some degree, I agree with this. The conversion of a grass-roots effort to promote environmental responsibility to a commericialized holiday of sorts runs the risk of diluting an important message. A message that has little time left to be transmitted before it's too late.

On the other hand, the increasing awareness of ways people can "green" their lives combined with the increasing affordability of environmentally responsible foods and products can only be a good thing. In a difficult economic situation, organic foods and expensive green products can not compete with mass-market, mass-produced, cheap, inexpensive items. So if in the name of a "green" earth-day issue, a magazine is willing to provide simple recipes for vinegar-based household cleaners, or recommend the best phosphate-free dishwashing detergent, then go for it. I just hope the information reaches the people who need it, and doesn't get lost among thousand-dollar designer dresses made from organic bamboo cloth.

So what am I doing this earth day? I'm reflecting on what I and the Writer currently do to be green and setting goals (Earth Day resolutions, if you will) that are hopefully attainable in the next year.

Things we do already:
- dry clothes on drying racks instead of the dryer (except for sheets for obvious reasons)
- use phosphate-free dishwashing detergents
- use natural, environmentally friendly household cleaners
- cut up old, holey cotton t-shirts into handing cleaning rags that are washed and repeatedly used
- use multiple small dishrags I knitted from cotton yarn instead of paper towels in most cases
- vigilantly keep lights off in rooms no one is in
- keep the heat down and rarely use the air conditioner (easy with a basement apt in summer)
- switched to coffee (ALWAYS consumed from re-usable containers) instead of pop, eliminating the aluminum cans
- carry lunches in all re-usable containers
- use as many natural toiletries as reasonable (deoderant, toothpaste, lip balm, etc.)
- walk or use the bus to go to school, work, and the grocery store
- use the comics from the newspaper to wrap gifts
- recycle as much as possible in our community

Goals for the next year:
-switch to cloth napkins from paper
-begin using recycled paper towels for the one roll we go through in a year
- switched to recycled toilet paper
- buy an iced tea maker to make my own so we can stop buying plastic gallon jugs of it
- buy/make cloth re-usable gift bags
- in the summer, switch daily schedule to coincide as much as possible with hours of daylight - decreasing the use of artificial light
- use local food co-op and farmer's market to obtain veggies and fruits in season, as well as locally raised meat

We'll see how we're doing next year. In the meantime, hopefully the message that environmental responsibility is possible - even in these economic times - will continue to spread.

Green Meets Frugality

So the communal dryer in our apartment building SUCKS. Even a small load takes two cycles to get completely dry. Have a pair of jeans in there? Forgettaboutit. So out of frustration and frugality because I refuse to spend two dollars to dry a single load of laundry, I've resorted to drying as many loads as possible by air on our collapsible drying racks. We have an apartment so setting up an outdoors drying line is not possible. We don't have a balcony like our neighbors either, so drying a load during the winter/early spring has been a two-day process on average. Two loads can usually dry at once between our three racks, as long as a lot of socks aren't involved. Towels and sheets are still dried in the dryer because they just don't fit on the racks. But all in all, it makes me proud to at least pretend that this is all out of an effort to be more green. Granted, it contributes to our effort to live more green, but the cheap part of my personality rejoices. Even though it takes half our living room.

Diet by Osmosis

If you ever needed help with motivation to stay on a diet or wanted to be repulsed by grease galore, visit thisiswhyyourefat.com.

Traveling - the Joys

One of both the joys and sorrows of my field is the need to periodically travel. Usually it's during the three summer months. But this week I'm traveling for my thesis research to look at a collection in Western Nebraska.

I left about 3pm Central Time to drive the six and a half hours west. I wish that I had the hootzpah to take pictures as I drive at 75mph, but I don't. Late afternoon is so beautiful when traveling west. This is when I feel the passage of time most accutely. The sun is visibly sinking lower before you as you race toward the light. In the rearview mirror you watch the night falling, traveling on the edge of the day.

One of my favorite parts of traveling is the quirkiness found along the way. In my recent voyages I found a gas station that advertised "classy restrooms." In North Platte, one gas station carries the sign "Welcome to Nowhere." Following a truck on the interstate labeled on the back "Do not hump truck." Seriously. Is this a problem?

And at the end of the road there's the reward. Going from this:

to this:

80 degrees, sunny, and little wind the first week of March. Doesn't get better than this.

"And thus goes all to the world but I. And I am sunburnt." - Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare.

Relaxing Saturday morning

There's nothing like waking up to a sink quickly filling up with hot (!), soapy, dirty water.

The truly annoying thing - this happens every six months or so, but it's not us. It's the upstairs neighbors. They clog the pipe and our sink fills up.

Domestic bliss anyone?

Winter

Welcome back winter.
















This. After 60 degrees and sunny yesterday. It has only been snowing for about four hours.

Apparently Mother Nature has decided to give me a little help focusing on my thesis instead of wanting to go outside and play.

Only two and a half months until the preliminary copy of my thesis is due. I got my permissions today to look at some materials in the hands of private landowners.



It will be done. No other options remain. Thanks Mama Earth.