Spring Quarter

The flowers and I are quite thrilled about this sunny, warm weather!

I am blogging for the first time from my iPad. So, I'm excited to see how this turns out.

I realized as I walked off campus early this evening that I haven't really posted about what I am up to this quarter. So far i've been incredibly busy, running around campus all day. My lab is in the middle of data collection for our study on emerging adulthood. So we've been recruiting participants, administering the surveys, and then tracking them down for payment. It's been strangely fun, as i've been hanging out with one of the fantastic members of our lab, Teri. But still exhausting.

I'm taking two classes. One is the last content course for the PhD program. It's development in adulthood and aging. It's not my focus area, obviously, but I am enjoying our discussions and the readings. It's pretty chill, easy. Then the other class is an applied longitudinal data analysis class. So I of course love it and I am getting really excited to work more on my stats project from last quarter. And I'm taking a bunch of thesis hours because by May 10, I will have a draft! I will also be presenting my thesis that day. Final draft of my thesis is due May 24. It's real. Oh, I am also a teaching assistant for the undergraduate course on development in adolescence. That's right! (Almost) no sex this quarter!

Graduation is June 9th. I am so excited! Of course, it'll be a weird commencement as I'm not leaving and will start studying for the preliminary exam immediately. But! It'll be a celebration none-the-less.

In other news, the weather here is perfect. Dresses, shorts and sweaters all around! I've been inspired to wear my favorite spring and summer pieces:

 

What I like quite a bit about these three is not only do they play well together (I wear the dragonfly and daisy necklaces together) but they are also from three very different places. I bought the dragonfly in Las Vegas, my parents bought me the butterfly in Philadelphia, and my mom and sister snagged the daisy for me in San Francisco.

So that's what's shakin'. Happy Thursday!

P.S. Dear Blogosphere, Carter Oosterhouse has a girlfriend.

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MOTIVATION

My adviser has a lot of sneaky and awesome ways to motivate us. This is the latest tactic. My little, enthusiastic/terrifying monster reminding me to keep on keeping on. He's quite thrilled that by Friday I will have all of my planned analysis listed for my thesis. He's even more thrilled that I'll have a draft of my thesis completed by May 10. I will also be presenting my thesis for feedback to my lab group. This is real. It's happening. Nothing like a presentation (and a monster) to motivate me.

Data collection is exhausting. Fortunately I only have about a week left. I've been running around campus all day since I've been back. It's fun in that I've been hanging out with the amazing Teri all day long. But I am looking forward to normality and being able to focus on my thesis.

One other bit of exciting news is that I'm finally going to dust off my tap shoes and hall my feet to a tap class. It's going to be fantastic to have an hour a week to focus on something besides grad school and other worries. Oy, are my taps are thrilled to get back on the dance floor!

Happy Tuesday!

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A Day With My Lady

My lady and I spent a day at home...

We did a couple of things, including checking Facebook via Flipboard...

And seeing what's new in the blogosphere...

And Flickr...

Then we looked at some recipes in Everyday Food...

Lady doesn't have much of an appetite so I'm...

So far, I'm loving it and my MBP is enjoying the break. I've only bought a few applications, GoodReader being one of them. My favorite is still Flipboard. I've decided I should subscribe to even more blogs to make it even more fun. If you have a recommendation, leave me a comment!

And... goodbye weekend. :-(

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