Wild Wood Wanderer

SUCCESS!!

Who knew that formatting a thesis was such a pain in the ass! 

I defend on Tuesday!  I’m coming with swords…

Beware!  The viper is coming in von veek!

Okay, that’s really just a bad joke whose punchline is: “Hello, it’s me, the vindow viper, I’m here to vipe your vindows!”

But what IS coming in one week is my THESIS DEFENSE!  Which could be the punchline of another joke depending on how it turns out.

Looks like I’m heading back to La Casa de McCarty for a little while after graduation.  I have some job prospects right now, but nothing solid.  Sigh. 

Baby steps, baby steps…

16 days until the Assoc. of American Geographers Conference out in San Francisco… 

30 days until I need to have the final draft of my thesis…

40 days until I defend…

60 days until I have to have everything revised, formatted, and approved…

67 days until I graduate.

My eyelids feel like ten pound bricks.  I’ve been up since 3:30 am after a less than pleasant dream made me bolt up in bed.  My mind wouldn’t listen to itself as I tried to coach it back into sleep.  I did finally manage to sleep for a half an hour before my alarm went off at 6:30 to meet a friend to go swimming.  That was actually a good way to start the morning.  Flash to later - I’m slumped over my laptop in Donkey, trying to find GIS data just to make some location maps.  AKA “hey dummy this is where Baltimore is located” maps.  Such a small part of my thesis, but so very required if you are a geography student.  Grrrrrr…

I started my new job today.  I’m going through The Baltimore News archives, looking for park, neighborhood improvement associations, urban trees, and black and immigrant population references.  It’s pretty cool.  I just sit upstairs in an old 50s classroom that’s been converted into an office and go through the paper on microfilm.  Today, in addition to other things, I was amused to see how many medicine’s were available for women in 1897- apparently they had a lot of problems, such as “irregular behavior”, and apparently, things like acid phosphate could cure that. (”My dear friend’s 18 year old daughter had not been acting like herself for six months, but after she took two-thirds of a bottle of Dr. Fullman’s Amazing Pill, she was cured!”) Also, I found out that women who have red hair are never supposed to wear blue or yellow dresses because it would clash.  However, a “bright brown” or other autumn colors would be okay.  And the blessing of a neat house is that everything has its place.  Also, if you are a woman who rides a bicycle with her fellow, please follow the proper rules of riding, such as allowing the man to go before you when a narrowing path with low tree branches becomes frightening.  But men, don’t get ahead of yourselves, because in less frightening situations, you should always let your gal go slightly ahead, with your front wheel parallel to her handlebars, so that she may set the pace.

I think I’d give him a run for his money.

Oh the joys of new neighbors, ripe with excitement over their new apartment above me, installing unsecure internet access! I hope this love affair lasts…

Remembered the name of an author I’ve been trying to think of for the last year. Walker Percy - wrote an essay that I read freshman year in English class called The Loss of the Creature. It was the first thing I read that actually changed my life. Would include a link, but it remains burried out there in internet land, so I had to go old school and buy it from amazon.

Hope springs eternal for a new quarter. I’ve met with my advisor and have a plan. This is the same plan as I’ve always had, a.k.a. finish my thesis. But this time it was accomanied by my first chapter, newly edited, and concrete goals for the end of the quarter. Wahooo!

It’s hard to focus on finishing this thesis and finding a job and place to live all at the same time. All of my apples are up in the air right now, and I’m not sure which one is going to bonk me on the head first…

Elsie got her third set of shots today. It’s amazing the difference between vet costs from here to Ohio. It was about three times as much here. She is in perfect health though. A lady I met at the vet today was able to describe her the way that I know her but couldn’t find the words: she’s got an old spirit. She is like a wise old woman in a puppy-size body. I think that is why I like her so much.

Poor Bear (my parent’s dog) is the opposite. He’s a five year old kid inside a gigantic Burmese body. Right now he is in so much pain - he had surgery to restore the tendon in his right leg. He’s got a metal, bolty contraption attached to his leg, from inside out, and has to wear an Elizabethean collar so he won’t lick it. I guess it’s good he has a young spirit - those are the ones that heal best.

I glimpsed an end to my thesis the other day. After a trip to Baltimore, I found some information that can narrow my research down and bring Edinburgh and Baltimore together. It’s still a long road ahead, but it will come and go as it should.

Well, Elsie has gone THREE whole days without “going” in my apartment. She’s doing really well, and has such a funny personality. She loves when I rub her belly and chase her down the hallway and into my bedroom. She’ll also do anything for a treat, and gets humphy if I neglect to give her one evertime she thinks she deserves one. I spend so much time with her - I don’t even remember what I used to do before she was around. Oh yeah, maybe that thesis thing

I’ve been biking EVERYWHERE trying to save money so that I don’t have to buy a parking pass. Today is beautiful out, so it would be easy to say that I’ll keep this up all year. Ask me again though in a couple of months.

For right now though, I can laugh at the fact that I put on a dorky bicycle helmet and peddle up the hill to the insane asylum everyday. (You knew it was just a matter of time…)