room 15 for life

i finally have doctoral-y things to talk about! thank god.

so this week has been irritatingly sucky so far. classes have been obnoxious. physical therapy is expensive and painful. and i'm just a little bit paranoid about the zoo in a lot of different ways that aren't important to talk about right now. i had high hopes for today, though, and they came through.

first of all, my adviser is a very busy person. she has lots of meetings all the time and so i have to schedule my meetings with her far in advance. at yale, my adviser was a woman named susan, who i've written about before. she was probably in her 60's, transgender, and very open to talking about anything (about you or herself). she was also very complimentary and she had a slate blue corduroy armchair in her office that you got to sit and rock back and forth in while you talked to her. 99% of my meetings with susan were 100% awesome. rae and i used to do our meetings together, and that was even better because susan would basically spend the whole time talking about how rae and i were going to rule the wildlife world together. which we are. just in case you were curious.

my adviser now is about half susan's age, in her third year at stanford, and a joint appointment with the school of ed and the environmental science program. she went to the forestry school at yale also, and we technically overlapped for a year. she is probably the nicest person of all time, and my absolute ideal adviser. i'm sad we only meet once and awhile because so far, we always have tons to talk about and talking to her is super interesting. today's meeting, for example, was really great. here's how it went:

- i ranted about my classes for about 15 minutes. and apologized about ranting but she took notes furiously and we talked about how maybe i can take my methodology courses at the environmental science school, where they might be more applicable.
- she told me about her class for next quarter which sounds awesome. and suggested that i start taking some design school classes, which i would very much like to do.
- i told her about my meeting with the director of the steinhart aquarium/chief of public engagement at the cal academy.
- she told me i can take a directed reading course in the spring to do a project with them (!!!)
- i asked her about my first year project.
- she told me maybe i can do that cal academy thing, if i think i can turn that into a dissertation?
- i tell her i would like to do my dissertation work in zoos, because i want to stay connected.
- she is very amenable to this idea and we talk about expanding my masters research (which as far as i can tell, would allow me to come home this summer).

she also tells me that i would be a good candidate for this joint program with the school of environment where i could take out a concentration or second masters with them. i'm leaning towards concentration, since i already have the one masters, but still, awesome. then our meeting is over and i'm feeling very good about life.

so good about life, that i decide i really need to find myself an office. so for the fourth time, i try to find the lady who gives out doctoral offices, but this time, i am successful! she shows me four different offices. all are in the basement. all are windowless and fluorescently lit. all are furnished with the same stuff i see in the basement of portland state that's free to take if you can haul it away. i chose the best one though, luckily. it's right across from the cubberley cafe, and the girl who i share it with is very close to done (so they won't give her space to someone else yet) and has all her stuff boxed up (so she probably won't be around much). this is great news. when i paid my key deposit, the lady said "great! i will give this back to you when you return your key. when you graduate." as far as i can tell, this may be when i die. at an old age. or in four years. anyway, if i'm going to be living there for four years (repeat: four. not five. or six. or god, seven.) it has to look happy and fun. which is why i have spent at least an hour today on the paper source website looking at calendars, desk organizers, etc.

to celebrate, i ate my lunch in my office. it was exciting. tomorrow i'm going to move books and things there. i will take a picture of it once it's mostly set up, and once my name is on the doorplate (!!).

also today we had another girl scout lesson which was really, really fun. we toured the enviro sci building (which i am going to spend a lot of time in, i've decided) and did another energy lesson. the kids were super cute, and it was all in all a good time.

now that i have an office i've decided that i am not going to do any more work at home. which means that when i come home, if i can help it, i get to relax. to that effect, i have a lasagna in the oven and glee cued up. one tiny, baby step closer to real life...