Tales from the Steppes

2006-01-12

9:05 a.m.
Thursday, January 12

But never trust a fellow with a helmet on his head
- Great Big Sea

Yesterday turned out to be a pretty good day.

When I went out to run errands at lunch, I found a pack of 10 distinctly colored highlighters. One of my main jobs is reviewing plans that people have submitted to us for approval. And this means heavy highlighter use, as there are often many, many lines on the plan and it is easy to get confused. I oftenrun out of colors and have to double up when a plan has a lot of environmental features. Because I only had 6 colors before - blue, pink, yellow, green, orange, and purple. So adding red, salmon, indigo, and violet is a major step forward. Yeah, I know. Pretty pathetic what can make me happy.

My lunch hour got even better when I left the office supply place (where I had gone to buy the EM a replacement binder) and headed towards Borders (to buy the EM some books to complete her essay on Julius Caesar - maybe I was a bit over the edge with my insistence on Suetonius). I discovered that my absolute favorite bakery had moved from downtown, on U Street, to just a few blocks from my office. Now I think I have probably already well established that I am a picky person. Oh I will find something to eat anywhere I go, without making a special order or anything - I am not a high maintenance picky person. But still, I can be quite particular about some things. For exaample, if I am going to bother to eat a sweet, it will be a good one. Otherwise, what is the point? I would rather have one really good cookie than 20 mediocre ones. And most bakeries just suck; even places like Whole Foods are often mediocre. Too much sugar, a heavy hand with flavorings, artificial additives. If I am going to by a cake, it needs to be better than I can make myself. Bleah. But not Cakelove. Cakelove makes these fabulous cakes from scratch with a wonderful crumb texture. Nothing artificial, not so much sugar that the flavors have to be heavy handed. Mmmmmmmmmm. Only a few blocks from my office. A bit expensive but perhaps an every other week indulgence. But they also sell by the slice. Last night was a German choclate cake - the SU's favorite cake on the planet.

Ok, that is also kind of pathetic. I guess I feel like if I whine about the little stuff I should also rhapsodize about it occasionally.

The best part of the day was yet to come. To explain why this was so fabulous, I have to quickly recap the last couple of years of my thesis. I started working with David, with Claudia as my second. Claudia left, so Paul became my second. Then David left and Paul was pretty much it, though I was going to have to find someone else to serve as my second. Then Paul left, in late December. And that leaves me with .... who? So you see, I have a big problem. A big stressful problem. The powers that be have not yet hired anyone to replace Paul. There is one professor that I have not met, who is full-time and they are making a part-time professor an offer to work full-time. And then there is the interim head of the department - the head of the entire institute of architecture and planning - the man who taught the urban design class with all of the trips to Ocean City. I am too far along to change my research but there was a definite possibility that whoever takes over would try to make me do so. But yesterday I spoke with the head and he agreed that since my research protocol had been accepted by the university, no one could mess with it. They can still change my framing and my analysis but not my research. Hurrah!

I still have a number of hurdles to get over but this is a start. I have to explain what I am doing to the unmet professor and bring him and the other guy up to speed - they essentially have to be my committee, whether they like it or not. I have four interviews left to do, to finish my primary research. I have had to shift some of my secondary research to discuss teh interaction between methodology and culture more, as that is a much bigger issue than I had anticipated. As in the people I am studying had no motivation to cooperate with me at all.

But still, a happy happy thing. Highlitghters, excellent cake, and my research left alone. Who could ask for anything more?

Well, I could. But we'll leave that alone for today.