Farewell 2010

What a year 2010 has been.  My first full calendar year as a graduate student.  This year I took a class during the summer for the first time in my educational career.  I traveled on 20 different trips to 12 different states, several of them more than once.  I attended my first research conference.  I began work on my master's thesis.

I was thankful that I was able to be with my family for Christmas this year.  Though the 600-mile drive home was long, it was worth it to see my parents, my brother, my grandparents, my aunts, & my cousins (including the in-law).  I enjoyed celebrating my birthday with them on Christmas evening.  It's great to be at home because I get to eat such good home-cooked food, this time prepared by my brother.  After a week of holiday relaxation, I made the 600-mile drive back to Lawrence.  When I got back to my apartment, I opened a beautiful letter from a friend from college talking about how much she appreciated and admired me.  I was astounded.  It was the perfect ending to my holiday celebrations. 

And now, bring it on 2011!!

Christmas Tree

Quick study break.

I got a Christmas tree this afternoon.  My first tree not with my family.  It was fun to drive it home on top of my car!  I've still got work to do tonight, so the tree is currently sitting on my balcony chillin' out until I can decorate it during MNF tomorrow night.  I had to get a stand and lights and everything.  Last year I bought some ornaments when they were ridiculously on sale, so my tree won't be decorated in just lights.

Okay. Gotta get back to work.

Caught between Thanksgiving & Christmas

Here we are. In that month (exactly a month this year) between two huge holidays involving travel, family, food, friends, gifts, and thankfulness.  And in which a semester must end, which means that students across the country are frantically trying to finish assignments amidst the "hustle and bustle" of commerical Christmas and parents demanding to know when their children will return home.  Of course, at the same time we all try to fight off the colds & flus that threaten to knock us down.

I've had a busy few weeks.  The BUCLD at the begninng of November, then watching the Monon Bell game (in which DePauw fell completely apart) in Kansas City, then a double trip to southern California, then driving home (and back) for Thanksgiving, and of course the usual lab and homework responsibilities.  No wonder I'm tired.

BUCLD

I'm about to go to my first research conference.  I'll be attending the Boston University Conference on Language Development this weekend.  One of the girls in my program will be presenting her research.  Noam Chomsky will be one of the speakers for the Society of Language Development's annual Symposium! 

I'm really excited but also a little nervous.  I do a ton of traveling, but most of my trips are short (i.e. less than 2 days) and we always get a rental car.  Neither will be true this weekend.  I'll be there three full days.  I won't rent a car, so I'll be taking public transportation, a taxi, or walking.  Believe it or not, I've never taken a taxi before!

Newest GRA's first visit

My Halloween weekend consisted of going on a trip with our newest GRA.  It was her first real assessment and she'd never flown before!!  I was very glad there were no surprises in terms of travel.  The assessment itself went very smoothly.  We got to see a cute kid with a wonderful family and beautiful house in the suburbs of Chicago.

Thankfully we were only going to Chicago so it wasn't an especially long or bumpy flight.  Turns out she loves flying!  She also enjoyed staying an extra day to see her family.  She hadn't been home since she moved to Lawrence, so she was very excited to see her family and dog and house and such.  I could relate - I remember feeling that way about the same time last year.

On Saturday we finished in plenty of time for me to make my flight, so after I dropped her off with her family I went shopping at the Woodfield mall.  I needed some dressy clothes for my next adventure: my first conference!  It was nice to have a couple hours to wander around such a huge mall, especially knowing I could buy something if I liked it!  It helped, too, that I knew I could put anything I bought in the lab's suitcase to get it back home, so space wasn't an issue at all.

All in all, it was one of the better trips I've had lately.

Apparently I lost a couple months in there due to class and work being kinda nuts.  Oh, and I haven't any trip fiascoes lately (though my coworkers have!).

I didn't travel from August 12th until September 24th, which felt very odd after having spent more than a year traveling at least 2 weekends a month.  In mid-September I went to Waxhaw, NC, which was just the right warmth.  The trees weren't quite turning, but it was still a gorgeous trip.
Last weekend I got a treat in that we went to see a family in Clarksville, TN, which meant that I could spend the weekend with my parents.  It was great to be back in Nashville, and it was fun seeing Mom & Dad even if I did get sick from the mold in the ducts. 
In amongst those trips, my colleagues went to Harrisburg, PA, and Washington, DC.  The Harrisburg trip turned out to be somewhat disastrous, at least on the return portion.  Their first flight was delayed, so they missed their connection in Detroit.  Of course the next flight back to KC wasn't until the next morning, so they had to spend the night in a seedy motel near the airport without the luxury of a change of clothes (they'd checked all the luggage).
The Washington, DC, trip wasn't quite so bad, according to their report, though there were 2 accidents on I-70 that Sunday so they sat in traffic for hours.

We are Go for Year 2

I feel like I should have something profound to say in the two days before I begin my second year as a graduate student, but nothing comes to mind.  I did get more unpacking done this evening, but there's still a ways to go.  Thankfully the weather is more or less cooperating so our two-week excessive heat warning has been lifted.  That makes carting boxes to the garage(!) much nicer. Yes, I do have a garage.  It is amazing.  It will be even more amazing once the snow starts this winter.  It was great during the heat wave because it meant the car didn't get nearly so hot.  Now, this is only at home, so the car still bakes in the parking lot at work, but hey, I'll take what I can get when it comes to cooling off my car!  Oh, and I suppose having the A/C checked and fixed had something to do with the fact that my car quickly becomes an igloo.  Speaking of my car, I got to work via driving and riding the Park & Ride bus for the first time today.  I think it's gonna work, and it sure will save me a lot of hassle trying to find a spot to park either in the close parking lot or on the street near work.  And the Park & Ride bus drops me off right across the street from work, so you can't get much better than that.  Hopefully I'll still feel the same about it come Thursday when the rest of KU's student body emerges from the summer!

This will be an interesting but busy semester since I'll be enrolled in only 3 classes so that I can work on my Master's thesis.  This time next fall I should have my MA in Child Language!  I was accepted to be on Dr. Mabel Rice's training grant for this year, which means I'll make a little more money but I'll have more responsibilities.  The point of the traineeship is to train new researchers in Child Language via coursework and multiple research experiences.  So, in addition to my current work in the Fragile X lab, I'll also be starting a secondary lab experience in Dr. Hugh Catts' reading lab.  It should be interesting.  Oh, and in the FXS lab we're almost finished with data collection for Time 4, which means we are talking about posters and papers to draft in the very near future.  I can't wait! 

Pictures from Driving through Colorado

A cute creek along US-40

We crossed the Continental Divide at least twice.

Rainy view in Colorado

A distinctive peak on US-40

They just keep going...

View from US-40 somewhere between Steamboat Springs & Dillon

The next Grand Canyon??

It may be a gray day, but the view is still beautiful.

Somewhere on I-70 between Dillon and Glenwood Springs

Mountains, mountains, and more mountains

I didn't even mean to take this in B&W, but it turned out pretty great!

The mountain nearest my hotel in Glenwood Springs.

Some of the mountains are green!

I couldn't believe I caught the clouds in such a great shot!

I love the view from the plane.

Gorgeous

Red earth

Beautiful mountains between Aspen & Denver

Check out the snow!

Aspen, CO

Wow. I sure can't complain about having a business trip to Steamboat Springs, CO!!  We flew into Aspen and drove up to Steamboat Springs.  I drove through Glenwood Canyon and up highway 131 at about midnight.  I will never do that again.  We saw about 10 deer, 2 raccoons, and 1 skunk (incidentally the skunk was the only one just sauntering down the middle of the road like he owned the place).  I did manage to stay on the road and to not hit anything, but it was definitely one of the more scary nights of my life.  I was very thankful when we finally reached out hotel in Steamboat.

After completing our visit with the family on Saturday, we drove over to Dillon, CO, so that my colleague could visit her friend.  We drove from Steamboat to Dillon via US highway 40.  It was a gorgeous drive full of rugged landscape.  We crossed the continental divide at least twice!  I had rented an SUV so that we would have 4 wheel drive (since I knew we'd be traipsing all over northern Colorado), and we ended up with a soft-top '09 Jeep Wrangler.  On our drive to Dillon, we took off the back window panels and drove with our windows down!  That was pretty awesome.  I was glad, though, that we hadn't taken the top down because it ended up raining on us a couple times during our 2-hour drive.

Once I dropped my colleague off in Dillon, I headed toward my hotel for the night in Glenwood Springs, CO.  I drove on I-70, but you wouldn't have known you were on a federal highway if you looked at the scenery.  It felt like a scenic state highway.  I drove through Vail, CO, which was stunning even without snow.  Toward the end of the drive, I gave myself a scare because I passed what ended up being the last available gas station for 20+ miles immediately after my gas light came on.  Needless to say, my daylight drive through Glenwood Canyon was a little bit stressful.  Thankfully, I did make it and I did manage to enjoy the canyon walls towering over me as I drove.  In Glenwood Springs, I checked in, ordered pizza for supper, cross-stitched & watched soccer for a bit, and then collapsed into bed. 

This morning, I was able to sleep in and eat a leisurely breakfast.  After packing up my belongings, I headed to the Jeep for one last drive down to the airport in Aspen, CO.  The airport, like most things in Colorado, is styled after a lodge or ranch house.  It's very small, and all the planes that come in are very small as well.  I flew in on a turboprop and I'll be leaving on one as well.  There are no jetbridges, and you board the plane and deplane by walking across the tarmac.  I know for some folks that's just how airports work, but for me it's a new experience!  It seems fitting to do that here in the middle of mountains that stretch thousands of feet high above us. 

Once I'm home, I plan to add some of the pictures I've taken.

I'll be very glad to get home this evening since I've only got about 36 hours until I head out to Fresno, California.  We'll only be seeing one family, but getting to and from California makes that trip exceptionally long regardless. 

Rental Car Frustration. Again.

When we went to Pennsylvania a couple weeks ago, I had just recently gotten my Kansas driver's license.  Most states nowadays print you the real card right there while you wait.  But not Kansas.  They gave me a piece of paper that was the size of a receipt with my DL number, info, and picture on it.  Talk about old-fashioned.  It didn't help that the picture was 3 times the size it is on the card.  Anyway, they told me my real card would come in the mail in 2-3 weeks and that this paper one was perfectly valid and would be accepted if I got pulled over (which thankfully didn't happen).  Well, we left on a Friday for Pennsylvania and the card hadn't arrived yet.  So, I brought my passport to get through airport security because I figured they wouldn't appreciate the paper license ID in Kansas City and they'd really put up a fuss in Philly.  With the passport, of course, I made it through.  Once in Philly, we took the customary rental car facility shuttle to Alamo and I got in line to pick up our car.  I approached the counter and the CSR and I began finalizing my rental.  All went well, until...she asked for my driver's license.  I handed her my perfectly valid paper license.  She looked at it, looked at me (I matched the picture!), then informed me she couldn't accept it.  I was furious.  Absolutely furious.  Thankfully, my colleague was able to rent the car so we were able to continue our trip.  Alamo wouldn't let me pay for the rental, though, even when we returned the car.  That was even more infuriating because I'd received an advance from the grant for the amount of the rental and I would therefore owe them money.  It's just not fun coming home from one of these trips and having to write a check to the people who usually owe you money.  To top off the whole thing, I checked my mail on Monday afternoon and there was my new license in card form.  Aaaggghhh!!!

Moved In

Moving is NOT fun.  Yes the all-caps was necessary to convey my dislike.  Though I am glad to escape my loud neighbors and their vuvuzela. 

The new roomie and I are getting settled in our new apartment, slowly but surely.  I really enjoyed seeing my family when they came out to help me.  I don't get to see my brother very often now.  (I can't believe he graduates from Emory University next spring!)  I didn't like all the hard labor and unpacking I had to do while they were here, but it was good to be around them. 

I now have a garage (!) for storage and/or my car.  I can't believe my car might get to live in the garage this coming winter.  No scraping!  Today's project has been to get everything together that's going to be stored in the garage so that I can continue unpacking my room.  It's a little wild right now.   I can get to the bed, the bathroom, the computer, and the closet, though I have to move stuff around each time.  Hopefully soon there will be less clutter.

Moving. Again.

Surely sometime soon there will be a year during which I will not move more than once.  Maybe not even at all.

One good thing is that I am getting out of the apartment that I don't really like and, more importantly, away from my loud and rude neighbors.  It'll be nice to live around people who don't insist on throwing massive parties during which their guests have screaming lovers' spats on the landing outside my door or ring my doorbell during the wee hours of the morning.  The goal is to not feel like I live in a frat house.  Another great benefit of the new place is that I'll save a good chunk of money on rent and utilities each month since I'll be living with a roommate.  Maybe I'll be able to upgrade my TV viewing experience by retiring the 6-year-old cheap off-brand old-fashioned CRT screen from Walmart and replacing it with a flat screen of some sort. 

I've spent today packing, but I've hit a brick wall at the moment and cannot bring myself to tape up another box.  I'm worried I might just fall asleep here at the computer!  Most likely dinner will help me get my second wind.  It's nice to go through my things and get rid of what I don't need anymore, but I do hate trying to wrestle non-box-shaped stuff into boxes.  It would be somewhat easier if I wasn't the sole person responsible for finding boxes, buying packing tape, and packing up every single possession, especially when I'm the one who also has to pay for the rental truck and the carpet cleaners and then fight to get my security deposit back after cleaning the apartment to better-than-new condition.

Jam-packed June

June has been a pretty busy month so far.  I've been to Miami for an entire weekend and Albany, NY, last Saturday.  On Friday I leave for Ohio.  Since there are only two of us doing all the traveling, we're gone nearly every weekend.  The good news is that I'm close to a free flight on Southwest!  Thankfully there haven't been anymore scary incidents like in Boston and the last two trips have been quite smooth.  Unfortunately, things don't really calm down much in July, but I do have the weekend of the 4th off.

We hired two new GRAs in May, and one started work yesterday.  She has a great attitude, and we're certainly looking forward to handing her some of the travel responsibilities.  She'll come with us this weekend to observe and get a feel for what we do on the home visits.  All this week she'll be practicing the standardized tests we give the kids.  The other GRA will start when she gets here in August, and we have high hopes for her as well.  With two new GRAs plus our hourly coders, we're gonna have a full house come fall!

Boston - City of Potential Disaster??

Our trip to Boston, MA, at the end of last week nearly ended in disaster several times.  Upon arrival at Logan International, we proceeded to the rental car facility.  Once there, I signed the required paperwork, we chose our vehicle, plugged our hotel in the GPS, and left, glad we weren't quite exhausted and that we would get to sleep in a bit the next day.  Little did we know how much we would need it!

Just past the tollbooth on I-90 we entered the tunnel under Boston Harbor.  I drove through the first of what would be many stretches of road where four lanes became two without any warning.  Thankfully this time there weren't any other cars on the highway.  At one of the merging areas in the tunnel, I looked to my right to check for incoming cars.  As I did so, we heard a rushing/sucking noise.  In horror I watched the passenger door of our Hyundai Santa Fe swing open!  My colleague, sitting in that passenger seat, immediately grabbed the door and hauled it back toward the body of the vehicle as I avoided the incoming car (which almost got a windshield full of door) and steadied the car.  The door opening while driving is frightening and startling, but it was even more so in this case because the doors were LOCKED just before this happened!

I searched for the next exit, which of course did not appear for another few miles and a second tollbooth.  My heart racing, I drove as carefully as I could to a well-lit (it was fully dark now) area I could temporarily park.  My poor colleague held onto the door for dear life.  Once safely parked, we jumped out and opened and closed all the doors.  Turns out the passenger door sounded different while slamming.  How did we not notice this at the rental car facility?  We climbed back in and drove back to the rental car facility.  Since we certainly didn't trust the latch on the door anymore, my colleague held on tight the whole way back.  I began to chatter, of course, so I'm sure we made quite a pair.  To top it off, as I waited for an opening large enough for the Santa Fe to squeeze through, the car behind me thought it would be helpful to lay on the horn and not stop till I moved.  Did the driver really want me to mow down two cars just to get out of the way.  Interestingly, that car followed us onto the interstate, so I'm not sure what the driver was so upset about.

Once back at the rental facility, we proceeded straight to the counter (there was no line) and began to explain what happened.  Most of the clerks were talking with one another, but one promptly helped us.  One of the nearby ladies overheard us saying something about the door, and apparently she misheard because she shrieked "the door flew off??".  We laughed and said, "no, it just opened."  Still, it was pretty scary.  The clerk upgraded me at no charge and told me to go pick out a full-size SUV/crossover.  I chose a Dodge Journey, and thankfully that was the end of the car malfunctions.

We successfully made it to our hotel this time, had a good night's sleep, and even had time for breakfast in the morning.  The visit with the family went very smoothly and was shorter than usual, which is always nice but was especially so this time.  We were worried that since the mom asked us to reschedule for later in the day after we'd bought plane tickets we wouldn't make it back to Logan International in time to return the car, check a bag, and make the flight.

Driving back into Boston was an experience.  I had planned on traffic for rush hour and Memorial Day, but what I didn't plan on was the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic having Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals in Boston that evening.  So there was lots of traffic.  I steeled myself for angry drivers and honking.  For once I was glad I wasn't driving a stick shift - the stop-and-go traffic would have been even worse then.  At one point as I made my way through a left turn onto the road I would follow for a while, I noticed that there were a total of four lanes merging.  There were only two lanes ahead, though.  How all of us managed to make it from four to two lanes without any dings, dents, or scratches, I have no idea. 

This pattern continued for the rest of the drive to the airport.  What should have taken about 50 minutes ended up taking about 2.5 hours.  I narrowly missed being sideswiped, T-boned, and rear-ended about a dozen times within about 3 miles.  We did get to see the land-water "duck" tour buses, which was interesting.  Picture a colorful Noah's Ark cruising down a 6-lane arterial.  I was surprised, but throughout all this my colleague and I were not stressing in the least bit about our flight.  We'd realized about an hour ago that we'd miss it and that rushing wouldn't help us at all.

We successfully returned the car, hopped on the shuttle, and took our place in what seemed an especially long line.  Now we knew we'd never make our flight.  We were worried about covering the change fees and the price difference between our current tickets and those of whatever flight we would get on.  We were also interested to overhear other customers talking about their direct flight to Kansas City.  Why hadn't we been able to get that one??  (the same thing happened when we left Kansas City - there was a direct flight to Boston, but it was delayed).  As we neared the counter, one of the clerks asked if anyone in line was confirmed on the 5:45 to Milwaukee, so we made our way forward - interestingly no one in line at any time seemed to be angry at the delay at any point.  Turns out the airline's computer system was down.  They were doubling checking passengers against printed lists and hand-writing tickets! 

Between this technological trouble and the bad weather in Pennsylvania, all the flights were messed up.  We ended up waiting 3 hours for our '5:45' flight to take off.  Guess we didn't miss it after all.  There were 2 other flights scheduled to go to Milwaukee and/or Kansas City between 5:45 and 8ish.  All three flights finally left in succession between 8:30 and 9pm.  Thankfully Boston Logan has free wifi!  Of course with the computers down the seat assignments were out of whack as well, but everyone was especially cooperative.  Once settled on the plane, we had a rather bumpy flight to Milwaukee.  We deplaned at Milwaukee only to discover that, yes, our plane was the one continuing on to Kansas City.  So we stood in line for boarding passes (because Boston certainly didn't have them!) and reboarded the plane.  The flight to Kansas City was equally bumpy, so I decided I didn't particularly like our pilot that evening, even though he took the time to explain to us what was going on with the delay.  As we deplaned in Kansas City, we were handed vouchers for $100 off our next flight.  We were worried about missing our flight, which would have been our fault, and here we ended up making the flight and getting vouchers because it was their fault!

Hopefully our trip to Miami in a week or two won't be so eventful.  We'll try to avoid dengue fever.

Post-Finals Thoughts

Made it through fall and spring of Year 1.  I'm still waiting on a couple grades, but so far so good.  I will be taking a class this summer, but it's nice to have a couple weeks off before more academic stress sets in.  At this point, if all goes well, I'll be defending my Masters thesis next summer!  I've got a lot of work to do before then, because I have a project idea but not a question.  Time to brainstorm!

It's amazing how writing an undergraduate senior thesis has changed my perspective on the length of papers.  Just a couple years ago I dreaded 10-page papers and I would have stared in disbelief if you told me I'd be writing 30+ pages soon.  Now, I can crank out an 8-10 pager in a couple days without much trouble.  And that's with my succinct psychology writing style!  My problem seems to be coming up with a question to answer, not answering said question.

Brief Update

Like most students, I'm currently facing the joy and intense pressure that comes from knowing that the end of the semester is only a couple weeks away.  I've got my share of papers and presentations to finish up!  What makes this end-of-spring-semester different is that I won't be moving back home on May 14th.  In fact, I'll be staying here for this summer and the next, oh, 6 summers.  I will get to see my family for a few days, but I won't be living at home again.  Home is technically here at school, even though I still call my parents' house home.  It is weird to be there without all my stuff, though!

Sleepless Nights & Searching for a New Home

I've had such trouble sleeping this past week that I really don't want to go to bed tonight [I blame my wonderful friends at DePauw =) this time at least, but I think the real reason I'm having trouble is all the traveling I do].  I'm tired, but I'm afraid I'll lay awake for hours, tossing and turning.  Last night I finally just got up and did something for two hours rather than think about how stressed I am while lying in bed.  I'm mostly stressed over this whole housing thing.  I would very much like to sign a lease soon so that I know where I'll be moving in July.  I broke down finally and posted an announcement on craigslist.  I think it's great that I'm getting both males and females responding offering places to live.  I guess that's grad school for you.  There are a couple people and their respective places that look neat, so the next step is to meet and see if I still think they're neat in person.  I'm also still looking for a place just for me.  I'm a little worried about a roommate because of my bunny.  I'm not sure how people will react to him - I'm guessing most of them don't know how much space rabbits need!  I'm also still unsure enough about myself that I'm worried a roommate will think I'm weird for having so much stuff.  But at the same time, living with another person would be very good for me because it would mean I have human contact outside of class and the lab!  And living with a guy sounds particularly interesting, especially since he's also a grad student and therefore not a crazy freshman or something.

Happy St Patrick's Day

I'm still stressing about being a graduate student, but at least I think I've figured out a potential thesis topic.  Now, to research it...

I had a great time seeing friends for a couple days since I was able to tack on a mini-vacation to the end of a work trip.  Of course it wouldn't have been an FXS lab trip without some sort of craziness regarding the flights.  We flew from one NCAA conference tournament city to another, and it wasn't until we were through security that we found out our flight was delayed 2 hours.  I was not thrilled about sitting and waiting in the gloomy, warehouse-like Kansas City airport.  There are windows, of course, but the concrete everywhere sucks all the light out of the place. 

Experience x School Interaction

Though I've only been at KU for just over 1 semester, I often find myself getting bored in my classes that are cross-listed as undergraduate courses (with the exception of Quant Psych courses).  It feels like we move ridiculously slow through the material, and, for one class in particular this semester, we rehash everything from the last class before moving on.  We stay on topics for longer than I feel is necessary, and the assignments are rarely challenging for me.  My first thought was that this boredom was due to just being older than (and therefore having more experience than) most of the undergraduates. However, since I've been trained as a social scientist, I realized there could be a confounding variable, or at least another explanatory variable, influencing my sense of boredom.
I came up with a promising one: type of educational institution.  DePauw is a small liberal arts school with relatively strict academic admission requirements, and it is also quite expensive.  Because of one or both of these factors, most of the students that attend DePauw are there to learn, and they take it seriously.  DePauw also has smaller class sizes and is on a smaller campus located in a very small Indiana town.  Athletes participate in division III NCAA sports.  Taking all of these factors into consideration, it shouldn't be surprising that classes at DePauw are fast-paced and set up to challenge students.  In contrast, KU is a large state school that is much less expensive than DePauw.  KU participates in division I athletics (think basketball), and the school is located in a decent-sized town in Kansas.  Students are not required to live on campus and many commute from nearby cities.  Students attending KU have a much wider range of educational and professional experiences.  Professors at KU must take this into account when teaching courses.  As in many public grade schools, when instructors must work with students on a widespread continuum of prior knowledge, the students who are better at motivating themselves to learn or who are accustomed to more rigorous academic requirements often feel unchallenged by the material and may become bored. 
Then there is always the potential interaction of experience (age) and school (size, type, etc).  Nothing is ever "that simple".

Travel Woes

     The last few weeks have been a little hectic in terms of travel.  On the weekend of Jan. 29th, I traveled to Decatur, IL, with a colleague.  We were going to visit two cousins - one on Saturday and the other on Sunday.  It was quite difficult to find flights to the area that were reasonably priced, but we finally decided to fly into Peoria, IL, and drive to Decatur.  Inconvenient, but not too bad.
     What we didn't count on was the suitcase with all our supplies in it not making it from Chicago.  This was not a case of a lost bag - American in Chicago notified American in Peoria that the bag had not made it but would be put on the next flight, so they knew it happened before we did.  We're not sure what happened, because our layover in Chicago was not particularly short, and the bag shouldn't have had far to go to change planes.  Unfortunately, the next flight from Chicago to Peoria wouldn't arrive until 9:30am the next day.  If it did make that flight, it would be driving to our hotel in Decatur, which would take up to another 2 hours.  So, best case scenario, we wouldn't get the bag until 11:30am Saturday.  We were scheduled to see the first family at 9am.  Uh-oh.
     We left our contact information with the American counter in Peoria and proceeded to our hotel in Decatur.  We, being good air travelers wishing to avoid dealing with liquids in our carryons, had put our toiletries in the suitcase.  Yeah, the suitcase that was now somewhere on the tarmac in Chicago.  The clerk at the American counter offered us the "spa in the sky" kit that American has.  For whatever reason, he only gave us one.  I guess he thought we would just share the toothbrush and deodorant.... Of course, our GPS was also in the suitcase, but my colleague and I always print out directions just in case.  Unfortunately, our directions were almost completely wrong.  They literally took us straight to the parking lot of the Caterpillar plant/warehouse facility in Decatur.  Clearly NOT our hotel.  We finally called the hotel to ask where they were located, then we retraced our steps a bit.  Turns out the hotel was in nearby Forsyth, not in Decatur proper.  By the time we made it into our room (yes, we have to share one on these trips when us girls go), it was well past midnight.
     We made it through Friday night with what necessities the hotel and airline kit provided.  First thing in the morning, we called the family to let them know what was going on.  They were understanding and flexible, so we planned to go to their house at 12:30pm. That should give the bag time to make it from Peoria after the flight landed at 9:30.  The clerk had assured us that there wasn't really a reason the bag wouldn't make that first flight.  Well, 12:15 rolled around and we still hadn't gotten a call that the bag was on its way.  We decided to go to the family's house anyway, because we could at least do one of the activities because we always bring the voice recorders in the plane cabin with us. 
     So, we successfully made it to the family's house and met the mother, son, and grandmother.  We settled in to do the interview, and all seemed to be going well.   Three hours later, the voice recorders shut off because they were full.  Neither of us had been shown how to delete old files from them, and we weren't about to experiment and risk losing all the information we'd already gathered.  At this point we still didn't have the suitcase and so could not do anything else with them.  We apologized profusely, and thankfully they were free on Sunday afternoon, so we decided to come back to finish up after seeing the other family.
     Back at the hotel, we transferred the files from the voice recorder onto my computer and then deleted them from the recorders so we could finish taping the interview.  We realized that if we had to do one complete visit (which usually takes around 3-4 hours) plus the bulk of this first visit there was no way we would make it back to Peoria to catch our 6pm flight.  And all of this was assuming the suitcase did show up.  We realized we would have to change our return trip, because changing the flight was cheaper than coming out for another visit.  We checked the flights, and the simplest and cheapest solution was to take an American flight early Monday morning (because my colleague has class at 2pm on Mondays).  Unfortunately, that flight was leaving from Champaign.  So, I called the rental car company to see if I could just take the car there.  Of course the answer was no, not without getting charged over $500 more (for which I would be reimbursed but I would have to pay up front and it takes at least 6 weeks to get reimbursed).  We didn't have much choice. We would have to drive back to Peoria on Sunday once we finished, return the car, pick up another car (at the same counter), and drive the 2 hours to Champaign.  So I made the arrangements and found a hotel for us.
     At 4:30 on Saturday, we finally got the call that the suitcase was almost to Decatur.  We rejoiced, thankful that we would be able to collect all our data from both families.  We rejoiced even more that we would be able to shower with our own shampoo and brush our teeth and such, and I was finally able to take my medicine.  The rest of Saturday was relatively uneventful.  I got to watch the two basketball games I wanted to see, and we both got a little homework done.  The next morning, we met with the second family, gathered all the information and did all the activities we needed to get done, then stopped for lunch before heading back to the first family's house.  To make the trip even more unpleasant overall, the first family smoked in the house on both days.  Now my colleague and I do not smoke and we especially do not like to be around the smoke.  It's a personal preference that usually isn't an issue.  This time, though, it was.  By the time we finished all our data collection, all our clothes were saturated in cigarette smoke.  Even the shirt I'd tried to keep away from the other clothes smelled of it (I always bring an extra shirt and such, just in case we get delayed, so I was able to keep one remotely clean - my colleague wasn't so lucky). 
     Once we were finished at the families' houses, we drove around our elbow to get to our thumb to get the right car to get to Champaign.  I was driving (and had been throughout the trip), which was great until we were about 45 minutes from the hotel.  At that point, my digestive system decided it didn't like something I ate, so I was miserable for the last part of the drive.  I didn't get sick, but the other option for the stomach to deal with such a situation isn't too pleasant either.  I fervently hoped it was a very short-lived bout of food poisoning (I was relieved when I woke up Monday feeling alright).  We collapsed into bed around 10pm, exhausted from a long day of working with two kids who have Fragile X Syndrome.  The night was short, because our flight was scheduled to take off at 6:45 Monday morning.  We awoke and made it to the airport on time, though we weren't able to get any breakfast.  Finally, after changing planes in Chicago and driving the hour home from the airport in Kansas City, we made it safely home around 11:30am.  I scarfed down some lunch and gratefully fell into my own bed for a long nap.

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Fast forward two weeks:  I'm scheduled to see two families in the Carolinas this weekend.  Delta, however, called me at 11pm last night to say they had canceled our flight to Charlotte through Atlanta because of the snowstorm that hit the Southeast.  So instead of being en route I'm sitting at home (don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the extra 'weekend' time!!).  My other colleague (the guy this time) didn't get a call from Delta, so he didn't know the flights were canceled until he read my text (which I sent last night) this morning.  I guess I'm the 'weird' one who checks the weather and flight status before trips, because I wasn't a bit surprised the flights were canceled.
     Delta will change our flights without a fee, but our only option is to take the same flights at the same time tomorrow.  Well, that's great, but we are supposed to see a family at 10am tomorrow.  Unfortunately, we've had to just cancel that family for now.  We'll fly into Charlotte then drive to Apex, which is near Raleigh & Durham, to see the second family, then we'll fly home from Raleigh-Durham as planned late Sunday night.  That's assuming that Atlanta can figure out how to deal with the snow before tomorrow afternoon....

The NFL AFC / NFC Championship Weekend

What a day!  I love seeing games like this, especially one so good as the Vikings-Saints battle.  My only regret is that it means the football season is almost over.  I suppose that's a good thing, because I'll likely get more work done ;)

I had a tough time in the early game today deciding who I was going to root for.  Growing up in Tennessee and going to school in Indiana means I definitely have some loyalty to Peyton Manning.  I was thrilled, however, to see a rookie head coach & rookie QB make it this far.  Yes, the Jets had their rough games, but they wouldn't have made it this far if they couldn't play.  Though many fans complain about Mark Sanchez's interception quota this season, they often forget that during Peyton Manning's rookie season he threw 28.  Anyway, I am glad Peyton will have another chance to get a ring.  He's definitely Hall-of-Fame quality, and I don't want people to say 'well he just never won enough Super Bowls...'.

I'll admit, I've not really followed the Saints until this season.  Sure, I've watched some of their games, but I never really got into them like the city of New Orleans has.  This season, however, I jumped on the bandwagon like many others.  I loved watching them play - they could create turnovers so well (especially today!).  They didn't always blow teams out, so you never really knew how the game would end.  However, I'm glad for the city of New Orleans that their team is going to the Super Bowl for the 1st time in franchise history, and I'm also glad that Pierre Thomas and Jonathan Vilma have something major to celebrate this week.

It should be an awesome game on February 7th!

Semester 2, Week 1

Whew! I've made it through a full week of classes (though one hasn't met yet, so technically I'm not out of the woods yet).  So far I like them, but it will be a much busier semester than Fall '09.  However, I'm all for that.  I didn't really feel challenged and fully engaged last semester, but I know I will this time.  I've got some great professors and at least three major projects.  Of course they all want me to do 'something relevant or practical' with the project.  I agree, but I don't know if I can come up with 3 separate parts of a potential Masters thesis that fast!  I guess we'll see how it goes.

In other news, I'm excited to have two consecutive weekends in which I do not have to traipse across the country.  I enjoy the trips - both the flying and the visiting - but it is also very nice to have my weekends to myself.  I never really realized how much I look forward to them!  I think this will be my last respite for a while, however, because we've got quite a few families to see over the coming months.  During the school year, we usually can only see the kids on the weekends, because we and they have class during the week.  Thankfully we try to make sure we balance the trips such that no one travels more than 3 weekends in a row.  Still, those three weekends can be exhausting!  And usually there's only one weekend 'off' before jumping back in.

Crazy Kansas Weather

So. Cold.

Blowing snow and wind chills well below zero + not-so-great insulation = COLD Jules & Sugar. 

And I'm supposed to fly north tomorrow???