Black Friday Activities

Today was a pretty productive day for me. I was thinking that it really wasn't going to be, since I expected to spend most of it with family. But Jen is working, and my little bro and his wife left early today to head back to the 'burbs. And so I had the whole day to... SHOP!!! Just kidding. :) I sat at home and worked on my dissertation. Jen and I thought long and hard about getting up at 5 a.m. to buy a new computer but decided there would be other sales in the coming weeks. I did go out to read through a draft of a chapter at Starbucks, while I had my morning latte, but I avoided the malls and the box stores and the general craziness. And then I wrote the rest of the day.

It was interesting to look back at the comments from my last draft, as I prepare to submit the next one. The last submission, I'm ashamed to admit, was 5 months ago. But the drafts are shockingly different now. I had forgotten how much work I'd done in that time. Now, hopefully that work addresses my director's comments.

I'm a little wiped out right now, but I'm hoping that tomorrow I can finish up responding to the last of the comments for two of the chapters so that I can submit them tomorrow. Then over Christmas Break, I plan to bang out some more solid drafts to my other chapters. As part of that work, my director advised me to do some validity and reliability checks on my research. Ugh! Anyone game? :) I know, you're all just dying to read through students' reflections to see what metaphors they use to talk about learning to write. Fun times!

I'm pretty close to NIU, and I know a few Profs here, one of whom I cite pretty heavily in the diss. I'm thinking about sending him an email to see if he knows of any Ph.D. students who are knowledgeable about my subject and would like to trade off some academic grunt work. We'll see.

T-Day menu with a side of paranoia pie

Nothing major to discuss today. Just thought I'd say hi. One more day of classes before Thanksgiving Break. I'm looking forward to turkey and whatnot. Jen and I are making mashed potatoes, orange rolls, and an apple pie for our various dinners with the various fams we'll be visiting. Luckily, they all live pretty close together. So I get to go shopping when I get home from work today. That'll be fun, I'm sure. Hopefully, it won't be too busy.

Something weird happened last week, so I thought I'd share it. I composed a post about a week ago about how I'm a complete dunce, since it took me two weeks to realize that I occasionally walked past Obama's office here in Chicago. "What's with all the extra police?" "What's with the barricades on the side of the road?" Two weeks of asking myself those questions. I spent some time on the post, which of course was autosaved as I worked. And I didn't really share anything that wasn't really public information. But for some reason, when I went to publish the post, it didn't go through. And I lost half of the message that should have been updated and saved once a minute.

So now I'm all "Big Brother" paranoid, even though it was probably just some Blogger glitch.

A Photo Montage of Central WA.

Today, I noticed that my blog profile still listed me as living in Wenatchee. So, I made the change. But now I'm feeling a little nostalgic for the ol' stomping grounds. I love being back in Illinois, but I miss the mountains a little. And I miss the 5-minute commute to work.

So in memory of Wenatchee, I thought I'd share some of my favorite pics. It's amazing what you can do with a cell phone these days. Though, there are shots in here that I wish I had a nicer camera to work with some of the light and shadow issues.

But anyway, here you go:

This was takn from our balcony looking east toward East Wenatchee.

We took this one on a hike up to Icicle Ridge near Leavenworth, WA

This is Lake Wenatchee, up on Stevens Pass
This one was taken at Lake Chelan, WA

On the left is a picture of the Wenatchee River, just outside of Leavenworth, and on the right is another picture taken near Leavenworth.

Wobbly Woes and The Windy(-chill) City

So last Friday, I got to play soccer for the first time in a couple of months. I gotta say that I've really missed it. Though the competition isn't quite as fierce as out west, I'm still being challenged. It's always fun to run around and get some exercise. And you're pretty much running non-stop in soccer, so it's pretty good exercise.

Well, about five minutes into the game, I steal the ball and get a break away. If I was 18, it would have been a goal. Instead, I looked like an absolute stud for about a second and a half. After that, I looked like a complete clutz. I think my brain was about a half-step in front of my body, which happens more regularly than I'd like to admit. But it made me get a little off balance, and a little top-heavy. So I took a funny step, jammed my leg into the turf, sprained my knee, and skidded to halt. I forgot how much rug burns suck, by the way.

Luckily, it wasn't too bad. I was able to limp around the rest of the game (even scored a goal), but I wasn't very effective overall.

That means today, on the first half-way chilly day of the season, I got to limp around downtown for a half hour on my way to work with a cold breeze numbing my face and hands. Fun times. I can't wait for it to really get cold. :)

In other news, Jen started her new job today. She's working at a physician-owned clinic in DeKalb. It's a nice place, and she said that everyone she has met so far is really nice.

By the way, it occurs to me that you may not have our new address:

622 Roosevelt Ct.
Sycamore IL 60178

Obama-palooza Hullabaloo

Well, today's the big day. All the plans are set for election night and Obama's party in Grant Park.

My plans: leave before everything gets started.

It would really be fun to stay in town and experience something that might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But I guess I'd rather watch it from TV. Mayor Daley's been saying that he's expecting a million people to show up. And I don't even want to think about trying to ride a train back home at midnight chock full of people. Plus, I still have to vote, so I'll need to go home for that anyway.

So for all of you expecting live, streaming updates from Grant Park, you'll have to go somewhere else.

Since it's pretty close to all the action (across the street, pretty much), the college is shutting down after 3, and I'm sure the whole place will be locked down tight. My building (second one on the right in the picture above) is two blocks away. But as you can see, there's No Parking, even for folksy and mavericky Chicagoans.

I don't know why Sarah Palin's face was stuck on the No Parking sign, but I take it as a ringing endorsement of the job the City of Chicago's Bureau of Traffic Services is doing in preparation for the event. :)