fall semester wrap-up
I got three As and two A-minuses in my fall classes (statistics, SAS programming, policy, epidemiology, and program management). That's nice. My bad academic habits (perfectionism -> procrastination -> poor time management -> apparent flakiness) don't seem to get punished, in the end, except informally in terms of lost sleep and the like. I'm pretty sure only one of my professors even realized I was being flaky, and the others assumed they had lost my stuff, etc. Sweet.
Then I had a break of nearly a month, which was also sweet, except that I feel like such a loafer. That good old Protestant work ethic may not apply when I'm in school, but it certainly works its guilty magic on me when I'm out of school! Incidentally, it's also surely part of the reason I like working a job so much (when I get to). The other parts, of course, are (a) having a sense of purpose in my daily business [yes really!] and (b) getting to play after work rather than face an endless homework to-do list. Thank god this is just a two-year program. Hopefully I'll have figured out what it's good for by the time I finish.
Anyway, classes resume tomorrow, starting with a two-full-day crash course in some kind of data-entry software. I ought to get a good night's sleep for that, but I may have wrecked my sleep cycle a little lately. I thought about doing a decade-in-review post like Nicola and Jaclyn (assuming we skip the actually-the-millennium-starts-in-2001 stuff this time around), but that would require focus.
I haven't cooked much lately. That changed a little over break, but really my major culinary accomplishment all semester was to rediscover a badass ginger-spice cookie recipe in the midst of a breakdown I was having about school. On the plus side, it reminded me that I am good at something, and not completely useless; on the other hand, that something turned out to be baking rather than statistics and it made me think about a career change. In the end I didn't drop out of school, did raise $100 for the local abortion fund at our bake-sale, and made cookies roughly every weekend thereafter in order to keep feeling good at something.
Other things I cooked in the last few months:
Friends from out of town who I saw:
Jobs I've had since quitting NAF and moving to Atlanta:
That's all I can think of to list right now, as I didn't read any new books or listen to any new music (probably an exaggeration, but probably not by much). It's pretty late now, so hopefully I'll be able to fall asleep.
Then I had a break of nearly a month, which was also sweet, except that I feel like such a loafer. That good old Protestant work ethic may not apply when I'm in school, but it certainly works its guilty magic on me when I'm out of school! Incidentally, it's also surely part of the reason I like working a job so much (when I get to). The other parts, of course, are (a) having a sense of purpose in my daily business [yes really!] and (b) getting to play after work rather than face an endless homework to-do list. Thank god this is just a two-year program. Hopefully I'll have figured out what it's good for by the time I finish.
Anyway, classes resume tomorrow, starting with a two-full-day crash course in some kind of data-entry software. I ought to get a good night's sleep for that, but I may have wrecked my sleep cycle a little lately. I thought about doing a decade-in-review post like Nicola and Jaclyn (assuming we skip the actually-the-millennium-starts-in-2001 stuff this time around), but that would require focus.
I haven't cooked much lately. That changed a little over break, but really my major culinary accomplishment all semester was to rediscover a badass ginger-spice cookie recipe in the midst of a breakdown I was having about school. On the plus side, it reminded me that I am good at something, and not completely useless; on the other hand, that something turned out to be baking rather than statistics and it made me think about a career change. In the end I didn't drop out of school, did raise $100 for the local abortion fund at our bake-sale, and made cookies roughly every weekend thereafter in order to keep feeling good at something.
Other things I cooked in the last few months:
- lots of oatmeal cookie recipes, several of which were letdowns
- lots of variations on tilapia fillet (including one battered with a slurry of egg whites, parsley and grated parmesan: surprisingly decent)
- a lot of creamed spinach
- ten-minute channa masala out of various cans of food, often
- spiced rice (still experimenting)
- cast-iron salmon and tiny brussels sprouts
- New Year's Day dinner: cornmeal-crusted pork loin, butternut-squash biscuits, basic collards and black-eyed peas, roasted-marshmallow ice cream
- Ethiopian-style collards
- warm lentils with beets and cranberries
- long eggplant in spicy-sweet garlic sauce
- several roasted cauliflowers
- "salad" (for lack of a better word) of daikon radish and quick-pickled beet
- homemade brownies, tonight
Friends from out of town who I saw:
- Elisabeth from DC, who recalibrates my soul every time we hang out and helped me get through 2009 more than I understood at the time
- Jake my DC roommate, who I later learned still owes a friend, who met him through me, a massive amount of money; talk about lame
- Melissa my college roommate, who's now in berkeley also feeling weird about grad school, but at least has an amazing food-life and hopefully will host me at her place soon
- Patrick my college bestie, who's still working on making it to a whole year living in the same place, but unfortunately not in the same hemisphere as me
- Taylor Rose from DC, who's actually from here and is my old manager's daughter; fun when she's around but very hard to pin down
Jobs I've had since quitting NAF and moving to Atlanta:
- very-part-time checker-inner/moneytaker/interpreter at my old clinic, where I'm unfortunately not much good because I get so out of practice between stints
- teaching assistant for two professors who co-teach a fall course called "technology of fertility control"
- research assistant for one of the above dudes, mainly doing a survey of organizations engaging in post-abortion care
- teaching assistant for dude above plus two other co-teachers, preparing a brand-new spring course all about abortion: score!
That's all I can think of to list right now, as I didn't read any new books or listen to any new music (probably an exaggeration, but probably not by much). It's pretty late now, so hopefully I'll be able to fall asleep.