BuSy

Sometimes I update my blog furiously when I am busy. Othertimes I find myself too busy to even get to it, and the things that have been keeping me busy don't lend themselves well to a few paragraphs.

If you know me in "real life", then you probably know what I've been up to.

Dissertation writing. Yes, actual writing! I do the occasional reanalysis, but mostly I'm writing. And re-writing. And staring at a blank computer screen. And wondering why I ever thought writing a dissertation was a good idea. I can tell you that I will never write another one of these again.

And wedding planning. This weekend J and I went up to my parents' house, along with my sister and her boyfriend. We went to the wedding site, met with the caterer, went fabric shopping, went dress shopping, and met with the florist. And within 48 hours we were back in Baltimore. I guess we got a lot done, if only because caterers and florists simply need to be told what we like and then they go off and do it.

This weekend I'm going to San Francisco, like I have the time to do that. But J is presenting at a conference this weekend, so the hotel is already paid for. And Chiaroscuro and Visual Field are going and planning to drive around and take pictures the whole time and they've offered to let me tag along and borrow their Digital Rebel*. (Insert big red flowery "yippeeeeee" here!) And unless his plans have changed, our Finnish friend is also going to be there and I haven't seen him since Ianqui and Super G's wedding.

Oh, and in case we're not feeling busy enough, we're planning to squeeze apartment hunting in Philly in either this Friday or next Wednesday. (In fact, we're flying to San Francisco via Philly.) So far we've identified neighborhoods we want to look in and we've perused the ads (along with city crime statistic maps, just in case), but we haven't made any appointments yet. It really wouldn't be like us to make plans more than 12 hours in advance, so we've still got time. :)

 

 

(* For those of you with cash to buy such things, Canon is offering a rebate at the moment on the Rebel XT for $100 off. Personally I think they are just doing it to taunt me!)

Comments

[Consuela Nomegusto]

How come you guys always have your conferences on weekends? Are people expected to bring their families? Are they ever in places like Cincinnati or Pittsburgh (like mine are), where no one would want to spend their precious few days off?

(I write this from a meeting in Iowa, so there you go) ;)
Good luck finishing it all up - by the end of the summer, it will alllll be done. :)

[JtH]

I would never have thought to look up crime stats for a prospective suburb. Is it really that bad?

[Claude]

Lately we've been expected to front the money for conferences and then put in for reimbursement. That would be OK if A) I could afford to go in the first place, and B) it didn't take forever to get the money back. I've been waiting on the money for a slightly-used copy of the DSM-IV since January. Bah.

I don't think I would have looked up crime stats, either. Maybe if I was in a neighborhood that looked attractive to me I'd start chatting with passersby to check out their attitude.

[seadragon]

Actually, I suppose I shouldn't have mentioned that we looked up crime stats so casually. The only reason we thought to do it was because of J recently getting mugged here in Baltimore, and from my recent visit to a friend in Philly whose neighborhood made me more uncomfortable than I ever was living in Brooklyn or Baltimore.

Maybe I was just being overly paranoid, but we parked on Fitzwater and 13th (the only place we could find a spot that didn't require a residential permit), where there were a lot of abandoned buildings, empty buildings and lots undergoing construction, and a decent number of people loitering around (e.g., in front of an old convenient store). My friend told us to walk up 13th, but we weren't comfortable for a few blocks until the buildings we were passing by started actually have people living inside of them.

But I'll be the first to admit that I don't know Philly all that well. It is the city of brotherly love, right? So the people we passed just wanted to love us. :) (One guy called out from the doorway of the convenient store to wish us a Happy St. Patrick's Day.)

Also, we have heard from people that we should be careful in the neighborhood around the university. I haven't actually seen the neighborhood though, so I don't know how it compares to where we live in Baltimore. However, this was coming from the friend who already lives in Philly near the area I wasn't comfortable in and she also used to live here in Baltimore. So I'm guessing it has to be worse, or she wouldn't have pointed it out. So we just don't want to waste our time looking for apts in neighborhoods that sound good online, but when we get there we realize we would never want to live there.