A doctoral update…

I’ve promised myself that now that I’ve started the dissertation process, I will do a better job documenting the journey.  Hopefully, I can keep that promise

I probably should start a new blog for this stuff, and I might eventually do so, but since it is a regular part of my life, I feel that it is “right at home” here on my life blog. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, I finally bit the bullet and submitted my dissertation prospectus.  After only one set of revisions, it was ready to go off to my committee!

After discussing dates with my chair today, I created a Doodle poll (seriously the best tool ever if you have to schedule anything with a group), and sent it, along with a copy of my prospectus, off to my committee today.  As of right now, we’re looking at the week of December 10-14, which is the last week of the semester, so here’s hoping I can get everyone involved.  I know that one of my professors, who is currently on sabbatical, cannot attend, but we planned for that, so all good there.

Over the next two weeks, I must do two things:

• Nail down a date for my prospectus proposal (in progress!)
• Come up with a lunch menu for them (my chair has a gluten-allergy, so I’m trying to come up with a gluten-free menu) (I have a few ideas on this as well )
• Create a presentation on my research
• Finally, come up with a little gifty thing for them.  I’m thinking that since it is right before Christmas, it would be appropriate to give them a little something to say thank you; especially since I am extremely close to them all and usually give them Christmas gifts anyway.  It will probably include some of my homemade Christmas candy, that I will be starting on soon!  I’ve had several professors tell me that bribery never hurts (of course, they were kidding), but I want to give them something to thank them for their commitment and mentorship.

Anyway, if you don’t mind, send me some happy thoughts over the next few weeks as I officially embark on this journey!   I’ll try to update as soon as I can

Celebrating 8 Years and Counting…

On November 10th, Alex and I celebrated our 8th dating (well, in college) anniversary.  Unfortunately, because I was sick all last week and we had the football game on our actual anniversary, we had to postpone our actual celebration to this past week.  It was well worth the wait, though!

This is the first year that we’ve decided not to do presents.  If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that we have back-to-back “holidays” (Nov. 10 – Anniversary, Christmas, Feb. 6th – My birthday, Valentine’s Day, and Feb. 18th – Alex’s birthday), and the past few years, shopping for every single holiday has gotten more stressful that its worth and we end up getting each other something we don’t really need just to have a gift to give each other for each holiday.  Not to mention, November to March was an extremely expensive time   We decided that if we limited the gift giving to Christmas and Birthday’s, it would be much easier and we’d be able to give each other better quality gifts.  This year, we started with Valentine’s day (we decided to do cheap, and cliché Valentine’s gifts and it worked out well) and we decided to nix the presents for anniversary too.

Anyway, Alex wasn’t too happy about not doing presents this year, but he was a good sport.  I can’t say that I kept up my end either, because I felt like I, at least, needed to get him a card and decided to make one instead of buying it, just so he couldn’t give me a hard time..  I totally felt like he might actually NOT get me anything, but he proved me wrong!

When he showed up at my apartment to take me to dinner, he came bearing this:

Sweet, right?  Sneaky little devil

Anyway, he made my little homemade card (seriously, don’t judge…I made it in less than an hour ), look so sad…

especially since the note he wrote inside made me cry (but, it is for my eyes only…sorry! )

After I took the rollers out of my hair and put the finishing touches on the make-up, it was time for a quick photo op!

I love the first picture, but hate that we forgot to turn on the flash and the lighting is terrible SO you are getting my favorite, and then the pretty picture

Once pics were out of the way, we hopped in the car to head to dinner (which was a surprise until we got there!).  Alex quickly pointed out that he had cleaned his Jeep, inside and out, in preparation for our date that night….*sigh*  He’s too cute!

As we drove to our dinner location, Alex pointed out all of the “nice” places he was taking me…like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Taco Casa, etc.  I had no idea where we were going until he turned in the direction of my favorite restaurant:  Kozy’s!  I was SO excited and could not wait to get there

We’ve been to Kozy’s a few times, but we had never been to eat off of their regular menu (most of the time it was for a special, pre fixe menu) so we were really excited.  It didn’t disappoint!

For appetizers, we had some delicious stuffed mushrooms (they were stuffed with beef tenderloin and aged swiss cheese and had a red wine demi-glace), and then I had chicken chasseur with truffle mashed potatoes and asparagas and Alex had a spiced duck breast with gouda grits and spinach.  Both entrees were absolutely delicious!  For dessert, we shared a crème brulee (without the carmelized sugar on top) with a berry compote.  It was yummy as well!

After dinner, we went back to his house to relax and catch up on Hulu.  Unfortunately, this girl only made it through one or two shows before she was out.  I know, terrible girlfriend right?  I felt so bad, but I doze off on Alex all the time, so I’m sure he’s come to expect it

Regardless of my early ending to the night, it was absolutely wonderful.  Huge thanks to Alex for making it special, without presents

Here’s to MANY more anniversary celebrations together!

Happy Anniversary, babe!  Love you lots!