Excited

Today is a great day so far!  Here is why:

1) While running with the dogs this morning, we got caught in pounding hail.  No joke.  It was honestly laughable, it was so ridiculous.  Just out of nowhere - sunny when we left the house, 30 minutes later we're getting pummeled with hard rain and ice chips.  Bizarre.  Then by the time we were soaked to the bone and I was bright pink, it let up and there were blue skies again.  So we kept running.

2) I ran into Tera on campus this morning!  I noticed her right away because she looked so cute in her bright blue jacket with her pretty red hair!  We might do something this weekend, but she's always so busy and I have a lot to do this weekend, too... but if that doesn't work out, I was still really glad to see her.

3) I have another potential experiment in the works.  Maybe.  So the Illinois conference didn't work out, because I decided not to pursue that syntax project I told you about, for now at least.  But today I went in to be a pilot subject in a experiment one of our 5th year grad students is working on, and afterwards I stayed and talked to him about it, and we came up with some good ideas.  He doesn't really have time to do it, though, so I might jump in and partially take over.  Maybe.

4) I have another potential experiment in the works.  Maybe.  This is not the same one as #3.  My experimental phonetics class is really, really fun, and we're starting a new unit next week that I'm excited about.  I have a cool idea for an experiment for that class, too, so if I get my act together, I may get to run my VERY OWN subjects for that one.

5) The fact that these potential experiments have got me so excited, even though they're just cute little ones that aren't going to be earth-shatteringly interesting or anything, makes me happy about being in grad school, and makes me happy about going into academia.  Sometimes when I have a lot of work, I start to think "Ugh, is this really what I want to do with my life?" but other times, I get so excited that I know this is the right place for me.  I also really enjoy the flexibility of having an academic life - I always have work to do, so I'm never bored, but really, I can do it whenever I want.  This works really well when Roger's working full time, because I can run errands and do fun things interspersed throughout the day (get groceries at noon, get coffee with friends at 2:00, whatever fits my class schedule), then walk the dogs, cozy up with a cup of tea and read.  As long as I don't let the workload stress me out, it really is a pretty awesome life.

6) It will be an even awesomer life if I get a fellowship from the federal government for next year!  I'm starting to get anxious to hear back from the two I applied for, but I probably won't hear for another month.  If I don't get either of them, I'll be teaching next year, and that's exciting too!

Life is good.

Oh! and 7) George is getting into town tonight, and we might meet up for lunch or dinner tomorrow and/or Sunday.

Well, time to get some reading done on this gray, chilly, drizzly, cozy day.