Wake-Up Call

It’s no coincidence that my recent lack of bloggish activity has directly coincided with a pretty stressful weekend. The first draft of a 2-4 page paper about our research project was due for 580, and since my advisors are wanting to show the final version of it (along with the 12-minute powerpoint presentation I’ll have to create) to DTRA when they come up in mid-December for the IPR (interim project review), I thought I’d pass my first stab at it along to Sue & Joel. Wellllll, let’s just say that the content and aim of the paper wasn’t up to snuff, and I got a rather forceful email from Sue that was a huge wake-up call. I was basically in a panic the rest of the day and I’m sure I had a deer-in-the-headlights look all afternoon and evening, even after Dr Shirer gave the class an extension on the paper until this morning. It’s at least up there with the most stressed-out I’ve ever been. So Thursday night I was in Walker until 2am catching up on reading and then writing summaries on some journal articles I needed for my lit review section (that’s one of the things I was chewed out for).
Friday from 9-3 I was in an all-day meeting with our entire research group plus Ian (the creator of SCIPUFF, the dispersion model we’re all working with), and by the end of that I was getting a much better idea of what my thesis project is actually about, and feeling much more calm about the work I had cut out for me this weekend. The meeting (coupled with not much sleep the night before) kinda wore me out, so I took the evening off, going down to the Sports Cafe for a couple hours with Andrew before comin back here to play some Fluxx and Cranium upstairs at Steph’s place with a few people. That was a much-needed break, allowing me to come in fresh to spend almost all day Saturday (2-11) at Walker workin on the outline and then starting the paper (I figured that would be a better use of my time than going tailgating and watching Penn State crush hapless Temple 47-0 in the rain), and then all Sunday afternoon too. I polished it off this morning, and was very relieved to get an email back from Sue saying that this version was “*much* better.” To paraphrase Moyer, hooray for advisors no longer hating the ground I walk on, haha. I think I’m gonna sleep very well tonight.
I was excited that Andrew & Kerrie decided to join me at church this Sunday. I wonder if they’ll be back again in the future, it’d be really cool if they did. 😀
After the busy weekend I felt like taking the evening off, so tonight I went with Frame & Moyer to the Penn State vs UNC-Greensboro men’s basketball game (yes, it’s basketball season again, it’s hard to believe). The Spartans put up a fight, keeping the game tied as late as 11 or 12 minutes into the second half, but the Nittany Lions finally pulled away late to cruise to a 69-56 win, putting their record at 2-0 on the young season. After their improvement last year with a very young team, I’m actually optimistic that the Nitts can be .500 or better in the Big Ten, and even sneak into the NCAA Tournament in March. Now that’d really be somethin’ for a Penn State team that has a tradition of being a doormat in the conference! Are you in?
And good luck to Shannon at her M.S. thesis defense in the morning!!!!