While my life passes me by in a blur...

As I settle into my last few days of exam week, I vow to return the world of the living, the really living, not just the academic living. As I sit here writing, I have the following still ahead of me- a statistics exam and two papers, not to mention grading. By next Tuesday, all will be well- and I'll hopefully have attended three end-of-the-semester celebrations and one daytime baseball game to treat myself. Of course this will require my utmost focus on school work- instead of blogging about all the joy I've experienced when I should have been plugged into my computer writing papers about pregnancy in cinema and why skateboarding is a useful institutional arena to explore gender construction. Yes, graduate school is fun. If you don't believe me, check out the two pictures. It seems like all the excitement started last week.

Last Thursday, I enjoyed what can only be called an extremely "nerdy" moment. The graduate students in my statistics class decided that it would be a nice gesture to purchase shirts from the statistical program that we have been learning and "using" for the last year, STATA. We planned an incognito moment to surprise our professor, while all clad in matching shirts. See the above picture for a picture of Becky and I in our STATA shirts, when we should have been completing our student evaluations. And see below for a picture of our beloved professor, Mike Ezell- as he was presented with his shirt and hat. And yes, the background slide- that is what we were learning that day, no joke. Thanks to Neal for the picture.

















Following the last day of statistics class, my weekend was full of navigating the Rites of Spring festival at Vanderbilt. On Friday night, I had the first opportunity to see Okkervil River perform, I was thrilled. On Saturday, it was The Flaming Lips. Both nights were enjoyable, though while standing in the rain on Saturday, I couldn't help but think through my final analysis for my statistics paper that was due on Monday. Yes, a stats paper. For your enjoyment, a picture from The Lips' performance.















I have a couple of videos from The Lips' show that I'll add tomorrow, perhaps.


As if my weekend of rock n' roll and school work wasn't enough to throw me into slumber coma for weeks, I even went out on Sunday night to hear Ezra Furman and the Harpoons at The Basement. I saw The Harpoons a couple of years ago by chance in North Myrtle Beach. It was a great show- and I urge those of you who aren't familiar with their music to find your way to their website as soon as possible, if not this very moment.


Now, I shall return to my work. I am already envisioning toasting my fellow stats compatriots tomorrow afternoon at the celebration.