Summer Vacation - Grad Student Style

So this is my second summer in my program and it is almost over. I have worked, not just on my own work, at least 10 hours a week, if not more. My crackberry and/or laptop is glued to me at all times, and I am always putting out little fires here and there. I do like that part of my job. I like being the one that people email/call when they need help. Unfortunately, there really isn't too much of a break from this, no matter where I go. I spent a week on a Caribbean cruise and the weekend in Miami. I worked about 12 hours on that vacation. I spent a week in the Wisconsin Dells area with my family, and put in another 10 hours or so. I will be going back to the Wisconsin Dells are with the girls this weekend and hopefully will not have to work more than 2 hours this weekend. What is nice is that I have been invited to present what I do to two different groups, one an entire college's faculty development day, and the other group are the new TA's in the department I got my MA in. While I am flattered by this attention, this I've got to prep for these sessions as well as get ready for my classes this fall. The PhD Comic below sums up how I feel:

Amen, Sister

This is from BitchPhD's Twitter page: "Dear Pixar, From All the Girls with Band-Aids on Their Knees."

I don't remember growing up wanting to be a princess and I am deeply disturbed as I see it being the only heroine marketed to young girls nowadays. Why do girls not get an animated woman with a profession or an education who is not waiting for a man to help define her? Maybe this is because I am reading Gilligan's In A Different Voice, but I just keep thinking about how different parents treat their children, not based on personality, but based on the child's sex. These differences in treatment will drastically shape children's personalities, and yet the parents wonder why these girls are so desperate for a relationship/sex and the boys are always pushing boundaries to prove their masculinity. It comes back to childhood role models and treatment!

I am on vacation with my family all week and it is fascinating to see how different my niece is treated when compared with my nephews. Even just the word choices are different. It is not bad, but it makes you wonder. People seem more obsessed with pronouncing the differences in the sexes, rather than showing the similarities. Parents are given little options to be sex-neutral in toys, clothing, or programming. Everything is his and hers rather than one size fits all. Stores are split down the middle separating the pink from the blue. What if pink is not your daughter's color, or you son prefers green? Do they go naked rather than defy the rules of the Baby Gap?

Summer Lovin'

I've been off for a month now, and though I have not completed any projects yet, I have started numerous ones. I have my kitchen under construction, and with the help of a friend it is now painted. I have the cabinet bases to still paint, and the doors, but one step is complete, so I am very happy to have that behind me. The hinges have been spray painted (they were brass and my hardware is nickel), and I have drilled holes for the hardware I got for free from my SIL who didn't care for it. I have material to make a Roman shade for the window, but that is the last step. I am hoping that by Monday night the cabinet bases and all wood will be painted. I can take care of sanding and painting all 17 cabinet doors and 6 drawers individually, but to have all of the contents of my counters in my dining room is driving my OCD into overdrive. I can deal with it for only so long. After all our handy work is done we are going to replace the appliances and range hood with money saved from our tax return. With the little financial windfall I have coming in from work, I think we will finish up the whole kitchen by putting in new flooring, sink, facet, and counter top. Those were going to be the 2009 tax return, but if we can finish it this summer and enjoy a completed kitchen, all the better. Then the tax return can be all about the only room in our condo that hasn't been updated from all its 1980's glory, the bathroom. That one has to be a professional job. We only have one bathroom, and cannot have it torn up for more than a few days before my husband and I need counselors.

I partially read one book for my DQE group. I couldn't finish it in time. I got pulled into some meetings just before our group met. I am now developing 3 courses over the summer. I am loving the money that I will get. It is nice because this fall I will not be a graduate assistant, and with these 3 classes I have made up the money the part-time assistantship paid me all year. On top of this there is a lot of rumbling around the office of more courses to develop this coming school year! So much so that I am helping train another course developer.

I also got my doctoral program planning form approved by the graduate school on campus. This means that I have 9 credits, or 3 classes left to take in my program. I have the dreaded stats this fall, all by its little lonesome, and in the spring I have our capstone course where we work on our dissertation proposals and I will also take a history research seminar to replace an ed research course. This is all really falling into place. I feel like things are going a little too well. I appreciate the good, but I am too much of a pessimist to not stop and look for falling shoes. I am not looking for the bad, but want to catch it before it becomes a big issue.