I was thin and cross. Now I'm fat and I'm happy

I love qualitative data! Words are more entertaining than numbers any day. I finally entered all my surveys (with a big thanks to my hired help--the undergrad!) and am now ready to review and analyze the data. I have 446 personal reflections to go through. It's a bit repetitive, but once in awhile I find a gem like this one, "I was thin and cross. Now I'm fat and I'm happy." I think that should be my new motto!

As for life on campus...ugh! Today I found out that my fieldwork projects were incorrectly registered (the blame to be determined...either me or the Kennedy Center) and so it looks like I am deficient 3 fieldwork credits. This is not good. Please cross your fingers that it was the Kennedy Center's fault so that the problem can be fixed with a click of a button. If not, I will have to write yet another petition and wait and wait and wait to see if it's approved. Oh the joys of academic hurdles and hoops!

Biggest Snow Storm EVER in Dallas!

I know Camille got tons more snow than we did, but still we got snow in dallas and lots of it! For a minute I thought I was back in Utah!

Mandatory Cohort Bonding

Dear Cohort 7,

I will be in town next week (thursday- saturday) to defend my project. There is going to be some MANDATORY cohort bonding during that time. You are all expected to attend (those of you with very small children (john), who live in other states and cant leave because of massive storms (camille) or with jobs that dont give you much free time (alina) are allowed to ditch us, but just know we will spend the whole time missing you and pretending you are there). The rest of you better be there (not at my defense, at something fun). So in the spirit of mandatory cohort bonding what should we do, pete do you have your little notepad ready?

I am so excited to see you guys (even if I have to force you to come and see me!)

Ash

Proposal Meeting Scheduled

While most of you are hurrying to hit Friday's deadline of having your project report finished, I'm still working on my project proposal. With some hard work, graveling, and a few winks, I finally have my project proposal meeting scheduled! Come watch me flounder and maybe cry Thursday February 18 at 9am in our favorite room 126 RB. I scheduled it with a promise to RT that I will have all the revisions completed that we discussed. Wish me luck!

Oh, and if you have any extra time and want to help me enter my project data, I have over 500 narratives waiting for you!

Please Pray for Me!

I just submitted my project to my committee, please pray that it goes up for defense and that it passes- seriously pray for me!

Mountains Beyond Mountains

Hey, I know you guys are all super busy but if you want something to do while you procrastinate, I'm reading this sweet book about a guy that did a ton of public health stuff in Haiti and Lima. It's really interesting, but has a few swear words so watch out for them. It's called Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder. Check it out. Yes, I realize I'm kind of a nerd. :)

new wallpaper

okay so this isnt the best wallpaper but not graduation themed so we should all feel better when we look at the blog.

Graduation wallpaper???

Well, based on the fact that pretty much all of us who haven't graduated yet still won't be graduated in May (except maybe Mark- good luck on the deadlines!) this wallpaper may be a bit premature. Maybe it's just to instill hope, though, that if I finally really buckle down and finish my statistics that the day will finally arrive! Since finding out that I don't have until the 19th to turn in my paper (the committees want it two weeks early, so, on FRIDAY which won't happen) I have had much less motivation to work on it.

I'm staying busy teaching Intro to Biology and trying to figure out how the SLCC system all works. They kind of skipped most of my orientation since they needed someone to start ASAP, so we've been working through issues slowly. They just got me a contract on Monday (3 weeks late), but at least I'll get paid now!

And Ashley, I'm still planning on applying to the University of Texas unless i get a really cool job somewhere, so you'd at least have one of the MPHers in the same state... though based on my basic geographical understanding of the state Houston is a long way from your house ;-)