The · Life · and · Times · of · Kaitl

Hello lovely livejournal readers...

I'm thinking about cutting my hair short now that I don't have the wedding to worry about...
( See what I'm thinking... )

Thoughts? Opinions? Other short cuts that *you* think might look good?

( Ta da! )

More photos at
www.flickr.com/kaitlinandseth
and
smugmug

I haven't posted in a really long time. I guess it's because I'm posting almost daily at kaitl365.wordpress.com

I still read my friends page religiously and enjoy seeing what you all are posting about. I don't really see myself posting here with any more frequency than I've demonstrated this year so far... so keep your eye on my photo blog for mini updates on life.

Big things right now:
school
wedding in 8 weeks
spring

:)

I'm seriously sick of winter. It's really hard to get out of bed when you know it's 10F outside and you have to walk the dog :(

Plus the cold makes everything else less fun, too... I don't feel like going outside to take photos because my hands freeze, it takes forever to go out to do anything because you have to put on a million layers... blah :(

I'm a grump today.

I just heard some weird banging noises coming from the side of our house, so I went outside to investigate and found two kids standing in the street throwing snow balls at our house...

Seriously, who the F thinks it's okay to throw shit at other people's homes??

I want to smack the crap out of people sometimes.

I passed my qual... I can officially continue on in the U of I Environmental Engineering PhD Program!

Woot!

The corollary to my earlier post is that none of my "dress to impress" clothes fit anymore...

Had to make do with the least baggy pants...

Started off today by weighing myself...

And for the first time in YEARS my weight was below 140 (BMI=24)!

Woot!

Hopefully this positive trend continues through 3:30PM!

My oral exam is tomorrow.

I'm scared of it.

I don't know what to study... they can basically ask me anything they want. We have the room reserved for 3 hours... I've heard of orals taking anywhere from 45 minutes to the full 3 hours.. I'm hoping that I'm closer to the 45 minutes end...

*sigh* I just want it over with.

Has anyone else had issues with their facebook account saying:

Account Unavailable

Your account is temporarily unavailable due to site maintenance. It should be available again within a few hours. We apologize for the inconvenience.

When they try to log in?

This has happened to me at least 6 times in the past 2 days and it's making me grumpy...

My Political Views
I am a center-left moderate social libertarian
Left: 2.85, Libertarian: 3.28

Political Spectrum Quiz

At least with the written part of my quals

They went pretty well-- if it were just the written stuff, I would definitely pass.

My next hurdle is the oral quals on Jan 29 from 1230-330. I will find out immediately after that whether or not I passed.

But for now, a bit of a break... no work this weekend.

Thanks to everyone who sent good vibes. The first part of the qual went relatively well. I made some mistakes, but got some semblance of an answer for each question before time was called. After talking to others who took it, I think I'm going to be fine regarding this part.

Wednesday is my "Specialty" exam. Should be slightly scarier. But Friday's "general" exam will be easy (relatively).

So... yay for that.
In other news, I have an awful headache, so no studying tonight.

My Qual starts today with a 3 hour exam from 1-4pm.

Hopefully my 4 weeks of studying was enough (I'm feeling pretty confident).

After this, 2 more written exams to go (plus the oral exam).

Ready! Break!

So...

I'm going to attempt to do a photo 365 project this year... this is (as described on flickr):
Starting January 1st... One photo, every day, for one year.

The rules are simple:
1. Shoot a new picture every day and post it here, just don't post an old one.
2. If you can't make it an every day thing (Like using film for instance) uploading in clusters is fine too. As long as the parameter of one photo a day is proscribed to.

I've started a new blog to hopefully document this project. You can find it at:

kaitl365.wordpress.com

Keep me honest, people.

So... here are a couple of my new year's resolutions. I have been wanting to work on #1 for a while, but I don't really know how to go about doing it. I'm looking for advice from my lovely LJ friends on how to accomplish my #1 new year's resolution!

1. Be more sociable (ie go out more, be able to hold a conversation with people...)
-part of my problem with this one is that I don't like staying up late or drinking that much... so I feel like I don't fit in with a lot of people (mostly due to the no staying up late thing
-however-- I still am super awkward when I run into someone at a cafe or in the hallway and would really like to improve my conversation skills

2. Be more focused on research

3. Teach scout to come when called

So-- if you have any advice, I'd love to hear it!

PS Here's to a great 2009!

PPS I tried to upload some new user pics and they look like crap. Any suggestions??

My PhD Qualifying exams are in 2 weeks. These entail 3 days of written tests and a 2-3 hour oral exam. I have to be prepared for questions on 7 subjects. And I've only just barely begun studying. I've read the texts for two of the 7 subjects so far, but still have to do practice problems and make sure I'm very familiar with where concepts are in the texts (everything is open book).

Basically, if I don't get a "pass" or a "provisional pass" then I don't get to continue the PhD program (I'll have to finish with a masters). The likelihood of this happening seems slim, but there's still a lot of pressure. It's pretty much ruining my Christmas break (I've studied 1-3 hours per day since my finals were over... including when I was home in Doylestown), but I guess it's better than having to study in August, which was my other option.

At any rate... hopefully I will be super productive the next 2 weeks and rock the tests ;-)

Will update with the results after my oral exam sometime in late Jan. Oy.

( PS we picked a wedding cake! )

I just pulled about 40 articles of clothing out of my drawers/closet to bring to my grandmother's house to give away. Some of the stuff just isn't really my style anymore, but a lot of it doesn't fit... it's too big.

While I'm glad that I've lost some weight in the past 1-3 years, it is really frustrating when I can't fit into some of my favorite clothes anymore... a few pairs of pants in particular.

The purge leaves me with (maybe) two pairs of dress pants... both black (ie kinda boring). I hope my sister will go shopping with me when I get home...

This may be the longest time between entries for me since I started posting regularly in 2003. Sad.

I still read my friends' page religiously, but haven't had the time or motivation to post here. Life is pretty good right now. My 3rd semester of grad school is wrapping up nicely (one final to go), I've started studying for my PhD Qualifying exams (Jan 12-16), and wedding planning is going okay.

I bought a new camera this week... it was a bit of a splurge, but I think I will like it and use it for quite a long time (assuming it doesn't crap out on me). Below you can see a photo I took with it today. So far all the photos I've taken have been of Scout or Seth (except for the 5 photos I took of my bench-scale experimental setup to include in a report). I will hopefully have more subjects when I arrive home for Christmas.

Seth and I are driving (with Scout) to Doylestown probably next Thurs/Fri and staying for about a week. Our trip is short this year due the qualifying exam issue. (I have to take two three-hour exams on 6 subjects and a 2 hour "general" exam... so lots of studying must happen between now and Jan 12).

I wish I would post more because I like looking back at what I used to be doing "this time that year" but alas, Fall 08 will be a wash.

And now... for your viewing pleasure...
( Read more... )

I am totally in love with this Ketubah text:

We witness that on the day of the week, the day of the month of , in the year , corresponding to the day of , , here in , the bride, , daughter of , and the groom, , son of , entered into this sacred marriage covenant. Standing under the chuppah they said to each other: as beloveds and friends we choose to walk life's path together. We pledge to be equal partners, loving friends, and supportive companions all through our life. May our love provide us with the freedom to be ourselves, and the courage to follow our mutual and individual paths. As we share life's experiences, we vow to create an intimacy that will enable us to express our innermost thoughts and feelings; to be sensitive to each other's needs; to share life's joys; to comfort each other through life's sorrows; to challenge each other to achieve intellectual and physical fulfillment as well as spiritual and emotional tranquility. We will build a home together and fill it with laughter, empathy, faith, imagination, trust, friendship, companionship and love; a home in which holidays and heritage are celebrated in accordance with Jewish culture and tradition, and respect is fostered for the cultures of both our families. May we live each day as the first, the last, the only day we will have with each other. We joyfully enter into this covenant and solemnly accept the obligations herein.

Other wedding stuff is really frustrating/annoying... but I am positive that I want a Ketubah and a Chuppah (despite the fact that I'm not Jewish...)