being a grown up

There are a lot of good things about being a grown up. Things like setting your own bed time, deciding when and how much tv to watch, eating dessert before dinner (or in place of dinner), and going on your own vacations.

While all of these things are fine and dandy, there are some not so wonderful things about being a grown up. I've been compiling a list in my head of all the things that are not fun about being a grown up and figured I should share.

• Taxes. If they wanted my money, why didn't they take it in the first place?! I thought that between Mikel and I we had enough education to figure out our taxes but it took a couple nights and a boat load of frustration to seal the deal. It would be a heck of a lot easier if we stayed in one state and each brought home a W2 but of course that wouldn't happen. We had I think five W2s, four 1099s, and two states between us. What a nightmare. 
• Cars. When you turn 16, a car seems like a great idea but it's not. That's a lie. You have to register it, insure it, put gas in it, fix it, change the oil in it, and the only thing I know about cars is that they are expensive and I am cheap. I am thankful for the cars we have (incredibly) but I wished we lived in a city where I never had to drive again.
• Dinner. Now I'm not talking about the eating part of dinner because that, I'm a fan of. No, I'm talking about the part that requires you to find something that sounds good to two people, miraculously have the ingredients, and then cook it.  
• Insurance. All of it. Car, health, dental, vision, renters. Ugh.
• Setting your own bed time, deciding when and how much tv to watch, eating dessert before dinner (or in place of dinner), and going on your own vacations.  Sometimes I'm not responsible enough to do these for myself and could really benefit from a full-time babysitter. 

We really don't have anything to complain about because we have pretty simple and wonderful lives but these are things that I don't love about being a grown up.

Lisa's ABCs

I read this somewhere else and thought it would be entertaining to do. Maybe if I'm real nice I can get Mikel to do it too...


My ABCs


A. Age: depends if you want the truth or what I told my club team (on accident) Truth: 26
B. Bed size: queen 
C. Chore you dislike: toilets... however, I do enjoy the laundry
D. Dogs: nope, nothing that poops or costs money yet (I know my limits)
E. Essential start to your day: food
F. Favorite color: red
G. Gold or silver: silver
H. Height: college roster- 5'9", real-life- 5'7" hopefully
I. Instruments you play(ed): piano, clarinet, bass clarinet (emphasis on the -ed)
J. Job title: student, coach, professor
K. Kids: nada, refer to D.
L. Live: Montana, it's not California but it's better than Michigan!
M. Mom’s name: Linda
N. Nicknames: snack bar, bushman, lis
O. Overnight hospital stays: nada
P. Pet peeves: plenty... not pressing clear on the microwave, stickers, lazy students
Q. Quote: "It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. Preparation begins before the forecast for rain." AND "Lack of preparation on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine."  
R. Righty or lefty: lefty
S. Siblings: older brother
T. Time you wake up: 8ish right now  (I can make my own hours during the summer)
U. Underwear: yes, please 
V. Vegetables you don’t like: are tomatoes a vegetable? According to Wikipedia, it's botanically a fruit but is considered a vegetable for culinary purposes (as well as by the US Supreme Court) so I'll go with tomatoes. 
W.What makes you run late: my laziness/shower procrastination 
X. X-rays you’ve had: when you are injured as frequently as I am, it happens a lot (fingers, knees, teeth...)
Y. Yummy food you make: it's all edible...
Z. Zoo animal favorites: elephants, giraffes, pandas

pet peeves

So I have a lot (I may be easy to annoy) but these are the main two related to teaching:

1. Not following instructions. I didn't provide detailed instructions for nothing so the fastest way to irritate me is to not read/follow these instructions and then throw a fit when I take off points or refuse to grade it.

2. Getting emails that say "I'm not going to be in class tomorrow and was wondering if I'm going to be missing anything important". I so badly want to reply: "No, thanks for asking! I'm planning on having the other 50 people show up, waste about an hour of their time and then sending them home with nothing important. Enjoy your vacation!" Now I completely understand the intention of the email but this is NOT the way to word it!

Edited to add: Along with #2 goes the email that says "I missed class today and was wondering if I missed anything important".... "Nope, I noticed you weren't there so I stopped everything and anxiously awaited your return, of course!"

Ugh!

Lisa's top secret advice for success in graduate school and life...

One of the interns who works in our office was with me when I was in Ann Arbor doing data collection (and slamming my hand in the car). She's super cool and was very excited because she just got accepted to graduate school. She was asking me all sorts of questions about what it was like, whether she was going to be able to do it, and for advice. I only had one piece of advice (well I told her she would be fine, she's a super smart girl and way on top of things). My top secret advice for success in graduate school and life: FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. Seriously, how hard is it?! For some people that answer is really really hard. I don't get it... It's actually easier if you follow directions; people are telling you what to do so you just have to do it. I try and pass this pearl of wisdom onto my students as well but some don't get it yet (although they might when they get their assignments back-- those that didn't follow directions didn't do too hot). 


Today, I had to give a presentation today on my current research project in front of all of our department along with three other students. All PhD students have to do it at some point. What don't people understand about 12-15 minutes?! This is a direction that the other students choose not to follow. Eight minutes over on a twelve minute presentation is a large departure from the directions. Anyways, my presentation went really well and people were very positive so that's all that matters to me. I got my grade and I can move forward. 


Unfortunately, my presentation was not drama free. Apparently, when I was packing last night, I only put one shoe in the bag. I didn't realize this until about 10 minutes before presentations were to start. Mikel didn't have the car so he couldn't bring it to me and I had to be in the presentations so I couldn't go. This left me with three options: wear my red running shoes, wear one of each (black dress shoe and red running shoe), wear no shoes. I initially thought the one shoe- one barefoot option was the best but I didn't want to walk around the building with no shoes so I would wear one of each into the room and then when it was my turn to go up with one shoe. Well, I forgot to take off the bright red shoe so I ended up wearing one of each. It was fine and nobody noticed but the people I had told until after my presentation but I couldn't step out from behind the podium so nobody saw. Marty (my advisor) and Brett (my friend from Idaho and officemate) had an extra good laugh when it was all over. 


On another note-- Mikel took pictures of these two beautiful cardinals (I think) outside our apartment the other day. We were teased with warm weather in the 70s for awhile but it was down to the 30s and 40s today; hopefully that won't last long...

I have to get ahold of some of Mikel's fishing pictures from his visit to Idaho so I can post them. He had a great time and caught some big fish!

things I've learned...

So many things....

1. Not everyone loads the dishwasher the same way I do
2. You can wash a shower curtain in the washing machine
3. Not everyone has the need to vacuum in straight lines
4. There is more than one correct path through a grocery store
5. The whole wide world of laundromats-- new to me
   
6. Some people just don't put things in the correct places in a refrigerator
7. Not everybody color codes their closet and organizes their shirts by length of sleeve (although to me it just makes sense)
8. Some people turn their phone off at night
9. Not everybody needs the sheets tucked in at the end of the bed
10. Some people can go to bed with the house being a mess (I'm not one of them)
11. Not everyone understands the need for decorative pillows on a bed
12. I've never seen some one go from 'hot' to 'cold' in their own house as fast as Mikel
    
13. I'm WAY more particular about things than I originally thought
14. I do a lot of things a certain way just because that's how it was done at my house
15. Not everyone procrastinates to the extent that I do
16. Some people are ok with the toilet paper going 'under' instead of 'over' the roll... the madness!!

That's all for now although I'm sure there is plenty more. I had a great visit at home and cannot believe it's time for the new semester to start! We did book Mikel's flight to Idaho for March and he's excited for that-- wish I could go to but I'm happy for him.

things I don't like about driving in Michigan...

I'm enjoying my time at home here in Riverside but have compiled a list of things I don't like about driving in Michigan...

1. Lights that are on timers. I end up sitting at lights for a LONG time looking silly because nobody is around but I'm waiting for the light to change colors (rule following is generally a good thing, I understand).
2. Similar to the above-- 'no turn on red'. If I could just make a right turn on a red light sometimes then I wouldn't be sitting at the light with nobody else around.
3. Michigan U's. You can't seem to make a u-turn at ANY intersection in the whole state!! You have to go through the intersection and go to these turn lanes in between intersections to make a u-turn. I have seen them other places but they are everywhere in Michigan so we call them Michigan U's as in "no you can't turn here but go past the intersection and make a Michigan U". 
4. Salt. They salt the roads like it is going out of style here! It melts the snow but rusts cars.... I'll take my chances with a 4-wheel drive car and a snow plow thank you very much. We definitely wash the car way more in the winter to clear off the salt than we do in the summer. 
5. Intersection lights that are timed so that if you drive the speed limit you are stopped at every red light. What the heck? Grand River is the street in between our apartment, school, and Mikel's work and the only way to hit all the green lights continuously is to drive about 8 miles an hour over the speed limit. This is a terrible idea though because people are always pulled over getting tickets. I stick with driving the speed limit and complaining about the red lights... it seems to work for me!
6. Potholes.... enough said.
7. When the gas prices go up here, the increase is at least 10 cents. Sometimes 15.... there's no 2 cents, or 5 cents...8 minimum-- so annoying!!
   

I'm sure I could think of more things but too many complaints makes a negative nancy!

one year down!!!

So my first year of school is OVER and it's definitely nice to be done! I have learned a lot and enjoyed my first year but am looking forward to a change of pace for the summer. I won a research fellowship award so I am going to be working on an independent research project during the summer and I won't have any teaching responsibilities. The second half of the summer I will be traveling around with Mike Welch (the old ISU volleyball coach) doing camps and we were able to find Mikel cheap flights so he can visit family and friends in Idaho while I'm there. It should be fun!

In the spirit of being done, I came up with a short list of some of the things I've learned in my first year as a graduate teaching assistant and doctoral student:

1. Age and maturity are definitely not related
2. Education level and maturity are also not related
3. Just because people are incredibly smart does not mean they are good teachers
4. Idaho State prepared me better than I could have imagined
5. I credit that preparation to some great teachers there
6. The "traditional", "normal" path through school (high school to undergrad to grad school) is not very common at all
7. Having an advisor who knows EVERYONE and has been at school for 30 years is incredibly helpful
8. Having an advisor with basketball season tickets is definitely a plus
9. MSU students definitely live up to their reputation of "work hard, party hard"
   
10. People in Michigan are different than people in California or Idaho
11. Although people in Michigan talk like they have the worst winters ever, they are really not different than Idaho
12. Being nice can get you a long way
13. Professional courtesy is a foreign concept to some people
    
14. It's amazing what students will beg for
15. It's amazing how unprepared some people are to live their own lives day to day
    
16. One thing I like better about coaching than teaching is that you can be much more blunt with athletes than you can with students
17. One thing I like better about teaching than coaching is that I don't have to travel and I don't have to babysit
    
18. When I am done, I want to teach at a school with more of an educational focus than a research focus
19. I am much more productive when I'm incredibly busy
20. I love being a student
21. I wouldn't mind never living in a place where it snows again!

On a side note- HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!