March 30: Urban Plate

Today I met up with Joanna.  She was the site leader for my trip to South Africa.  I had asked her to bring back some of the tea that Dr. Cooper loved so much.  I plan to give it to Dr. Cooper as part of her gift on my dissertation defense... she'll be so excited and thrilled.  She raved about this tea for months after I brought it back and couldn't find it anywhere!  Also, Jo and I met up at this place called urban plate for brunch.  It was vegan and delicious!

March 29: Salad

I love spring and summer because of fresh strawberries (and a bunch of other reasons as well).  Tonight I put chicken, strawberries, and avocado on my salad! Yumm!

 

March 28: Georgia Feminist

A new group of students, faculty, and staff are trying to propose a women's center at Georgia (for the 3rd time).  This time, in order to raise awareness, they are also selling Georgia feminist shirts! I love it, and love that it raises conversations about the inequities among genders at UGA and elsewhere.

March 27: Tax Workshop

We hold a couple of evening tax workshops through ISL in order to accommodate students schedules.  This one was crazy busy.  Can you see the line on the other side of the wall?!  Luckily, we were able to help all of them in the time frame.

March 26: Athens Trails

Laurel and I went for a walk on the trails in Athens after work today.  It was a beautiful day and a pleasant temperature.  We've had a really chilly spring thus far, maybe some of that will roll into summer.

March 25: Dr. Jones

Tonight we celebrated the newly minted Dr. Jones who successfully defended her dissertation today! Congratulations Dr. Jones!

March 24: Dissertation Submission!

Writing and rewriting, and analyzing, and more. Thankfully, there's coffee for this process! ;) And today, I submitted my finally copy of my dissertation to my committee.  My defense is scheduled for 2 weeks from now...eek!  Then there will be more edits and writing (I'm sure)...but I'm so close to the end!

March 23: Global Leadership Institute

Our global leadership institute certificate (GLI) program ended with a half day capstone seminar.  Cory did such a wonderful job with GLI this year and I'm proud of these students for sticking with this and really investing in their learning around global social justice issues.

March 22: Indian Ethnic Night

Tonight I went to the Indian Student Association's ethnic night.  We had delicious Indian food and they put on a great show!

March 20: Writing (x3)

I spent the day writing, three computers is better than one, right?!

March 19: Beautiful Day

Spring is in the air, and this tree is absolutely beautiful!

March 18: Starbucks Line

There was a funny hashtag at the conference #failedNASPAsessionproposals in which people would joke about session proposals that were submitted (but weren't) that were rejected.  For example, How to survive the Starbucks line at a conference.  The funny (or not so funny) thing about this is the truth in this statement.  Yep, here's a picture of the crazy line.

 At lunch I met up with a former colleague from Baylor.  We had lunch at little Italy and I had the best cannoli.  I don't even really like them, but we stumbled into this little place (that apparently serves the best in Baltimore) and it was wonderful!

 

March 17: Good morning Baltimore

I woke up singing Hairspray, good morning Baltimore on Monday morning!  I also woke up to snow! It had started the night before during NASPA's live outdoor music outing (which was fun, but would have been more fun had it not been so cold).  Anyway, I really like snow, particularly visiting snow (and then leaving it behind).  And it was great to see how quickly cities that are used to snow take care of the roads and sidewalks.  There was really only one treacherous place I had to walk and slide my way around.

I also had lunch with Jordan Hannah while at the conference.  It was fun to see him and catch up...and he was extra excited about the green beer.

March 16: St. Patrick's Day

This morning my sister, Phil, Nikki, and I all headed for the airport.  Unfortunately, my sister had to wait at the ATL airport for quite a few hours before heading back to PDX.  I am really glad she stayed longer to visit and that I'll get to see her in another couple months for graduation.

Phil, Nikki, and I then headed to NASPA in Baltimore.  After taking a car service (fancy) from the airport to Nikki & Phil's hotel, I walked the couple blocks to my hotel.  The car service couldn't take me any closer to my hotel because of a marathon and because of this lovely St. Patty's day parade.

March 15: Bear Hollow Zoo

I took my sister to breakfast at Mama's boy and then we walked to the Bear Hollow Zoo.

March 14: 5 & 10

Friday night my sister, Tiffanie, and I went to 5 & 10 for drinks.  This is a famous restaurant owned by Hugh from Top Chef Masters...and  a place my sister wanted to go since I moved here.  It was a fun time visiting, drinking good wine, and eating delicious appetizers!  The bartender was great and even gave us extra wine as the card machine wasn't working when they tried to close our check at the end of the night.

March 13: Kate Spade

There really aren't words needed for this, except to say my sister found a steal of a deal at TJMaxx on a Kate Spade purse (see it in the back of the picture, yep, I'm good).

March 12: Kroger

Today I visited the grad opening of the Kroger store with the Fred Meyer Jewelers inside.  The store showed nicely and there were a ton, I mean a ton of people there for the grad opening.  The rest of the day was spent writing at a local Starbucks.

March 11: Wendy's

While I waited for my sister to finish with her dinner, I figured I'd grab some dinner and snacks for the next writing day.  I really wanted a frosty and some fries for 'dessert' so I asked Siri where the nearest Wendy's was.  Ohhh it was in the same parking lot as the Target I was just in...should have just used my eyes.

Ps. the frosty & fries were delicious. 

March 10: Commencement Information

I have submitted my information for the graduate school commencement, which means my name and information will be in the program.  Woo.  It's getting closer and feeling more and more real!

March 9: Chapter 4

Is officially submitted to Dr. Cooper.  Although there will be edits to make (just noticed an error already), it is at least out of my hands for the time being.

March 8: Common Sense

This factor analysis book has practically been my Bible during this analysis and write up phase.  I am really, really grateful I purchased it back when I was taking psychometrics.  Anyway, today I came across this sentence...with all factor analytic approaches, common sense is needed to make the best decisions.  I laughed.  Yes, because the subjectivity of this 'quantitative and therefore sometimes seemingly objective' work is totally subjective.  Yes, I have made LOADS of decisions (sometimes using theory and sometimes common sense) along the way.  I'm happy to talk more about this, but to most, they would politely nod and smile...frankly there are days I just want to do the same (and have someone tell me the answers).

March 7: Target

I spent almost all day today writing, and ready, and writing more.  Around 6pm, my brain was done, so I took a little trip to Target to get some toilet paper (exciting) and I also got some snacks for this writing process.

March 6: Newly Minted PhD

Friends, let me introduce to you, Dr. Phil Badaszewski.  Ohh, and uga edu.  Yep, the college of education is giving out uga's (pronounced ugg-ah) for you to take with you and #ugaedu or something like that...anyway, we are also taking uga to NASPA this year.  WOO.  I digress.  Today, Phil defended his dissertation and officially became Dr. B.  Thus, a group of us went out to celebrate the newly minted Dr.  Congrats!

March 5: Lent

Today begins the season of Lent.  It's a time for Christians to prepare ourselves for Good Friday and the journey to the cross.  Many people during this season give up something.  I love this time of year.  It's a time to pause and reflect.  It's a time to prepare my heart for this upcoming season.  Lent also seems to happen in a crazy time of the academic year.  Things are busy with projects, or programs, ... or this little book report.  Anyway, I've bee thinking about what to sacrifice during this season.  Sugar?  Coffee?  Right, that's not even a serious option right now.  And as I began thinking about giving up (or taking something on, which I have often done in the past), I began thinking about how my time feels so precious right now.  The days are counting down until graduation.  I'm trying to finish this little dissertation.  Time is precious and of the essence.  Aside from exercise being one of the first things to go when I get busy and stressed (yes, I know it helps relieve stress, but ... whatever, why am I justifying it) is time reading, meditating, and praying.  Often I'll still find a few minutes to get on facebook, but I won't open my bible.  Therefore, during this crazy busy time, and in this season of Lent I am making it a priority to give of what feels very precious to me... my time.  This d365 is a simply devotion that goes through an item to have you pause, listen, think, pray, and go.  I like it because of it's simplicity and profoundness.  I am setting aside time each day to walk through these entries.

Jesus, take my time, draw me closer to you as I prepare and journey to the cross.  Guide me.  Reveal yourself more to me.  May this journey to the cross make me more like you, an my may life draw others to you and your deep love.

March 4: Blood Tests

This morning at 8am, I finally put off the inevitable, my annual thyroid tests.  When I first had blood work done to test my thyroid it was every other week, then every month, every 6 months, now every year (unless I think something is off).  Well, the snow days delayed my annual visit and with a refill, I wasn't in any rush to get my numbers checked.  Anyway, this morning first thing, I went and had my blood taken (involuntarily).  I have gotten a lot better about needles, but I still don't like them.

March 3: Writing Week

Today was the first day of my writing retreat week.  Only, I'm not retreating.  I'm just taking (most) the week off of work to get this dissertation closer to complete.  I spent all day data analyzing.  This part is getting closer to done, which means I can actually put chapter four into sentences, paragraphs, and pages.

March 2: Botanical Gardens

Yesterday, Laurel and I went to the botanical gardens.  It was a warm 73 degree day and she needed to practice some photography skills for next weekend when she takes pictures at her aunt's partners bday party.  It was beautiful and it was nice to be outside for a few hours.

February 29: Ethnic Nights

Many of our student organizations host ethnic nights in the Spring semester.  Saturday night I went to two of them.  I started at Africa Night (which was awesome and funny) and after intermission I headed to Filipino Night.  Minh (VP) and Desiree (President) are two amazing students and they were really excited that I was able to make it to their performance.  They did such a great job pulling together their ethnic night!