Outta town and back again

In the past two weeks, I've spent 5 days in other states. Last weekend I was in Arizona for my graduate school colloquium, and I just returned from this weekend's sojourn to Boston about an hour ago. I'm tired, I've got an enormous deadline looming tomorrow (but to be honest, I think it will take till Tuesday), and all I want to do is be done with this semester! All the other college kids around me are celebrating the ending of their years... but me and the school-aged kids, we have weeks to go before we're done. Then again, we don't start back up until late August. Then again, the college kids don't start until September... hey, Prescott, what gives?

In Arizona, I gave my Qualifying Presentation which, um, qualifies me to enter my Thesis semester. After meeting with my advisor and my Core faculty, I realized 1) I hadn't really decided what that meant and 2) I was pretty scared about trying to do my thesis in one term. So I made two decisions: I decided what I am going to write my thesis on and that I am going to take two part-time semesters to write it instead of the pointless mad dash that would have been trying to finish in January. I mean, I'm going to be teaching until June, so why rush and be stressed just to get done a few months earlier? It helped that my lovely peers Caroline and Gina also decided to go the part-time route. So, I guess I can't blow the martyr horn and announce woefully to all who pass by that "I'm in grad school full time and I'm teaching full time!" anymore. Ah well, small sacrifice (I just misspelled that as scarface. Heh.)

We flew up to Boston this weekend to see K's little sister graduate from Emerson College. It was a whirlwind of a perfect weekend in Boston, staying in Cambridge, and eating as much Vietnamese food as I physically could. The joy of my May so far was finding a bahn mi hut-- almost authentic tasting (the bread wasn't exactly right, and there were less pickled vegetables) and for $2.50, close enough to the real deal that I gladly shelled out for one, packed it into my bag, and ate it smugly in the Logan airport. Mmm, bahn mi. Crumbly, squishy goodness.

In other news, and since I decided it's lame to have such a great new Macbook and still post photoless entries, here be proof that my hair does indeed grow. I haven't cut it in months, and the ends look all vagabondy, but by god that is a ponytail. Huzzah!


Try to ignore the airport zits and tired eyes. I told you, I've been flying a lot. At least you all can't smell the picture...