chicago '08

my dissertation edits are finished. I sent copies of the final draft to my 4 committee members today. they will now re-read and dissect it. on may 13, I will have my defense, and they will grill me on every aspect of the study.

the amazing thing is that for the last month the only parts of the whole process that worry me are
1. what to wear
2. whether I should bring homemade baked goods or other refreshments to the defense
3. where we should all go to lunch afterwards

as of right now, I am considering the following
1. a sheer, ruffled blouse with the black skirt and my snazzy new shoes- professional yet stylish
2. yes, coffee and muffins or coffeecake
3. Scholar's Inn, not my favorite but the others will like it

Hugsband and my mom get to attend the defense and the lunch afterwards. I also have a bottle of good champagne I can break out later that night. then, I can officially change the name of this blog to dr. rachel's bloomington '04-'05. though, technically, the doctor thing isn't offical until my internship year is finished. for Ph.D. candidates in nonclinical programs, they're called 'doctor' as soon as the defense is over. my stupid program drags it out an extra year.

the culture of graduate school is so weird.

I love these creepy graveyards along old highways. we drove to indyfest today, which was fun. others in attendance didn't clap at the end of each film, so Hugsband initiated the applause each time. he loves clapping. Toby's short was very good and creepy. even though I didn't know Paul wrote it until the closing titles, I became suspicious of some of the plot elements and the use of a speak-n-spell-esque device.

there was a star wars convention in downtown indianapolis today. how many light sabres does one require when walking in the mall?
at least 2.

saw duran duran on tv today. it's interesting to see how they've matured. I had a huge crush on Roger as a kid, probably my first rock star crush, and I am pleased to report that he aged the best of all of them. Andy, on the other hand, remains hideous.

while dunking cookies in milk and watching america's funniest animal videos:

* do you think KoKo still has her kitten? it would be terrible if it died. I would feel so bad.
* I hate those fake ones. that guy is obviously not sleeping, and his dog is hideous.
* man, they always show horses playing with balls.
* aw, look at that guy. he does not weigh 2 pounds, more like 79 grams (contradicting the idiotic commentator)
* why do so many people have bears in their houses?

Hugsband and I spent the last 2 evenings outside looking at and listening for birds. tonight we went to the end of friendship road. we were surrounded by calling whip-poor-wills. a family (man, woman, teenaged daughter) walked down the road, and we were amazed to see that the man wore a holster. his gun looked like what you'd expect the sherrif on bonanza to wear. silver, with a white handle (is it called a handle?).

at dusk on wednesday, we saw 18 great blue heron and yellow-brown goselings with their parents and some deer.

on tuesday evening, we went to see david sedaris, who declared that bloomington is surprisingly beautiful. he's right.

I love my ENT. I drove about 3 hours round-trip to see him yesterday. he has silver hair and clunky glasses and stops my examination to point out red-tailed hawks circling the building across the street. he wears expensive shoes and grew up on a farm and tells me about his i-pod.

however, he does one thing that is not cool. he likes to joke with his nurses about the tumor he removed from my head last september. he thinks it looked like an ovary. each time I see him, he tells the nurses something along the lines of "and those OR nurses were like 'are you sure that came from her head? you're not an GYN surgeon'. ha! and the branches going off of it to the brain and down to the mastoid were like fallopian tubes!"

now you know what a truly great guy he is if I can over look that kind of crap and still like him.

I captured this father-son image this weekend when Hugsband's parents came to visit. you know how income is positively correlated with education? well, that rule doesn't apply to me. that's our 1991 chevy that they're trying to fix. the more I learn, the less I make and the older my cars get.

with the in-laws, we did a lot of outdoorsy things. we went to the farmer's market, played baseball with our 'little brothers', and saw 2 shitty movies at the drive-in. I also cooked my butt off. I made a full brunch and dinner, with both meat and vegetarian entrees. it's nice to spend time doing non-work and dissertation related activities.

Hugsband's mom told us a scary story about a bar fight in which she was punched in the face by a man. my father-in-law broke a guy's arm in the tussle. another time, they were at a concert at soldier field (amazingly, still called simply 'soldier field') when a woman was hit in the face with an M-80 that blew off her ear. literally. she was seated right behind them.

it got me thinking- none of my stories end in blood and violence. they're all like 'and then the whistle pig ran back in his pig hole and I didn't catch it.'

my friend toby's short film is playing in the indy film fest . Hugsband and I are going to the april 24 screening if you want to join us.
love,
Rachel

p.s. after a hiatus, mr. pants is back to posting very funny things.

I am removing files from our old I-Mac in preparation for giving it to my brother. in doing so I found this picture, which is about 5 years old. our wacky neighbor, Neal, the 35-year old perpetual teenage surfer, showed up at our apartment one sunday night wearing the same pajamas as Hugsband. they have polar bears on them. Hugsband's were a gift from my mom. when Neal first saw them, he was very enthuiastic and shouted, "dude!" or something along those lines. even after the exclamation, we were still surprised when he showed up in a matching outfit the very next week. Neal didn't own a microwave, but he did have his own stash of microwave popcorn which he made at our house. his visits became significantly less entertaining when he quit drinking and quit falling down the stairwell on his way back to his apartment. after 4 years as neighbors, I don't think he knew my name, and when I would answer the door he would not greet me. instead he would say, 'is he here?'

bloomington is green and rainy. everything looks very shiny and fresh.

it's kind of hard to see this little guy, but he's dragging a pile of nesting material that's bigger than he is. I have seen 3 different species of birds going at it right on our backporch. they're shameless. soon they will feed their fluffy babies at our feeders.

for better or worse (just worse, actually), the International Male catalog has been part of my life since I was about 15. my mom's roommate had copies in his bathroom when I was in high school. no doubt these served the same function as Victoria's Secret catalogs do for yucky kinds of men who can't be my friends.

when we lived in L.A., I drove past an actual IM store on a near-daily basis. and for a holiday party, our friend Bill ordered a IM complete outfit, replete with leather choker, ruffled shirt and faux leather pants. when we moved to bloomington, where one should quite easily escape the grasp of the far-reaching catalog, I began to get a subscription in my own name! it started when I ordered a belt for Hugsband on amazon, not realizing that the company at which I made the actual purchase was UnderGear, an IM subsidiary. Now we get the IM catalog and its slutty cousin, UnderGear, at least twice a month.

I am disappointed to see that IM is turning into a catalog for the elderly. or, perhaps, its clientele is just aging. at any rate, it's chock-full of pastel pantsuits. it resembles nothing more than a catalog of unfashionable resort attire for women of a certain age. certainly, the giggle-inducing package enhancing briefs, as well as the butt padding girdles, are still available. who wants to flip through the AARP crap to get to them?

mr. show is on comedy central. I just saw the episode in which Jay Johnston recounts the story of his trip up everest and repeatedly knocks thimbles off of the wall shelves. after 2 stumbles, they cut to commercial, which ruined the entire effect. we were at the taping of that episode, and it took FOREVER to reshelve the thimbles after each fall. it didn't seem funny at all until we saw it edited together. now it's unfunny again.

also, what about the dirty swears? I don't know how mr. show can exist without dirty swears.

my hair sun is going to set all of the way because I am going to a professional thingy in indianapolis on wednesday. Alicia is extinguishing it on tuesday. it was fun while it lasted!

I get to help Hugsband decorate his classroom this weekend, which is very exciting. he's covering physics with one grade and environmental science with the other, so we're thinking animals on skateboards ought to cover both bases. also, I am going to convince him to use graphic novels to teach, based on an npr story I heard on morning edition. the same program also covered no child left behind and how connecticut refuses to give standardized tests every year. I think Hugsband will fit in well.

I signed up for our weekend delivery of the NY Times today. it's exciting to become an east-coaster.

Alicia's inspiration was a sunset. I have a big sunset in the front and a mini on the right side. I like it, especially since it'll quickly fade to a respectable impressionist-y sunset.

Dear Client,
Thank you for waiting 4 years to have your child seen in our very prestigious autism clinic. Here is a fellow with sunset hair to perform the assessment.
Love,
Yale

if you pet him just the right way, it's possible to muse Simon's hair into a, Alfalfa-style cowlick.

it can also form into an old man, parted down the middle 'do.

1. the movie that the guy in the commercial was in.
2. what each of the eight people at the table ate the last time we went to our favorite Indian place.
3. Leroy's parent's phone number, undialed for the last 10 years.
4. the true name of that famous freak from the sideshow.
5. the cost of the most expensive badger shaving brush at Saks.
6. which tv channel corresponds to which network.
7. the name, diet, and breeding habits of that rare snake.
8. which color clothes hamper liner is for whites and which goes with darks.
9. which placement (left or right) hamper liner is for whites and which is for darks.

go ahead, give it a whirl.