Hello! It’s been a while since I’ve written—not because I haven’t thought about it! Rather, I was a bit put off from writing lately. I needed a breather. I am okay allowing myself the opportunity to write now. It was quite overwhelming; the rush of completion and the sense of destiny that my personal statement left me. Alas, I am done. 100% complete—for now. I will submit my applications this week and next week. *crosses fingers* I am hoping for an easy submission process, but I know the opposite will occur!

I am here in now in the basement of Suzzallo this morning for the purpose of researching my thesis. I met with my reference librarian who will help guide me through my research project. I am hoping for the best, but she informed she is new at “Women’s Studies” research—about one month on the job thus far, but she came from government publications. She graduated in the mid 80’s with a WS emphasis, but she is woefully under informed of the current theories. Surprisingly, this makes me feel neutral. I think it is balanced by the fact that I knew little of my research either before a few years ago and I think it will be fun to learn together. With her background in government publications, I think it will help my analytical portion of the paper by providing hard data (perhaps statistical tables?) and congressional committee reports and the like. At first I was a bit uncomfy with someone who is so green to my topic, but what the hell…we all are at some point (and some of us even choose to stay there).

I spent this entire weekend homework free! Except for the papers I printed out for CHID class on Tuesday, I did NOTHING academically related with my hands or eyes. However, I was thinking about it a lot. I thought about changing my topic, I thought about what that would mean and what my new topic would bring…(haha, I rhymed). I thought about a recent talk with a friend, Jen, in which I touted the importance of following through with my word, and then I thought about breaking my word and changing my thesis topic. My new proposal? To explore the societal constraints of women with children who return to school. Basically, it would be a research project for those brave mother/students who come after me and what pitfalls to avoid and what resources to access. I figured it would be much less painful than my current subject with deals with the messy problem of the legal response to domestic violence in immigrant, indigenous, and other citizens of America and viewing it through the lenses of two different feminist theories. That subject can disturb. That’s probably exactly why I picked, too! Sadomasochist or academic intellectual? Are they synonymous? I think yes, at least in this instance.

Ah, well, I decided not to pursue the new idea as a thesis topic. Although I am passionate about both, I must stick to my original intentions. Besides the sadness and “that’s just wrong” impulses I get from reading my current project’s sources (which deal at times with personal stories of DV), it feels good that I am doing academic work that is breaking new ground—in both undergraduate and graduate work.

In family news, the girls were up and down this weekend with their emotions. But, overall it was a good time. Friday night we had pizza and movie night. We handmade our pizza, which was really yummy and the girls chose to watch "The Santa Clause". We made a big fluffy bed on the floor with blankets and pillows and nestled in to watch the movie. Sadly, I stayed awake a mere 20 minutes! It was nice to sleep next to the gals, though! Saturday, we had to wake up early to volunteer for the UW Alumnae Board Scholarship collection drive at the UW v. USC home game. It was my first experience with college football (although we didn’t actually attend the game). We were collecting money for the UWAB Scholarship committee outside the front gate. I was tapped to be a volunteer as I was a recipient of a full ride scholarship this year from UWAB. It was fun, actually! The girls and I wore aprons, purple mortarboard (graduation) hats and Mardi Gras beads as we yelled to the thousands of people walking into the main entrance, “BEADS, BUTTONS, and BRACELETS FOR YOUR DONATION! SCHOLARSHIP DRIVE!” The girls were so adorable—even USC fans stopped to donate to UW scholarships—they picked the gold beads instead of purple as their donation “prize”. Toward the end of our 4 hour fundraiser, I had an interesting thought arise: the majority of people rejected donating to our cause, which was quite overwhelming. I thought, “wow, this is good practice for the graduate school gauntlet!” Ha! A sidenote: we raised over $2000 (at last count--we left before they were finished!)!! Whoo Hoo!! That's something I'll get excited about!

The girls and I hopped on our bikes and headed home while the game raged on. I heard UW lost by a lot, I also heard we didn’t have a chance in the first place—something about no. 1 seeds—as you can see I know nothing (by choice) about sporting events. I had a slight headache on the way home from all the noise and the multitude of people. I felt like an old lady when I admitted to myself I would have rather spent the morning in my pj’s sipping coffee and hanging out at home. Oh well, at least I did my recipient duty! Finito.

Saturday evening the girls and I headed down to Steilacoom to see my mom, David, and Shannon where we were treated to dinner!! It was delicious—even more so because I didn’t have to dishes by hand (we have no dishwasher at home)! The girls listened to our newest book on CD, Hatchet, and they were very attentive to this on the drive down. After dinner we visited Holly and Thad for a few minutes before heading to mom’s. Mom and David knew that I had to bring a baked item the next day for Destiny’s choir fundraiser, so they baked cookies for us!! It was such a nice treat to not play supermom for one weekend! I felt awesome. No dinner dishes and I had my homemade treat to supply for the next day! The girls fell asleep on the way home. Getting bed late means sleeping in late….icing on my cake!

Sunday afternoon was Destiny’s Northwest Girlchoir Welcome concert and bake sale. We came early to drop her off for the practice before the performance (about one hour early). I was packaging my contribution (mom’s homemade organic cookies) and gleefully helping others do the same. Savannah was happily running in the hallway upstairs and Nate was happily studying. I specifically wore some sweat pants and a pink sweater to distinguish myself from these types of parents, who showed up to said casual events decked out in Chanel with huge LV handbags and a boatload of makeup on their cracked faces. Ah, well, it backfired this time! It was an odd hour, with many rich wives thinking that I was a teenager and must help them now with the packaging of their desserts. I politely informed them everyone was to package their own contribution, but if they required additional help they should ask other parents like myself. I don’t think I could see their complexion blush through their gobs of makeup, but their facial expressions reacted as such! All and all, despite the impatient, rude, extremely affluent parents, the concert was wonderful and Destiny lit up the stage! I tried to take photos, but the lighting (and perhaps my camera) were not cooperating. They turned out too blurry or too dark. Hmm… After the concert, Destiny and Savannah picked out a dessert to purchase and we sped home to complete the day! Oh, by the way, our organic cookies sold for 3/$2.50—all 8 plates! It was a little bummer that there were no leftovers to take home! 

Sunday night was eventful as we prepared for the week ahead. Mondays and Tuesdays are the busiest days of the week for us. The girls read ahead so they could put their reading in their reading logs for Mon. and Tues. and I made dinner. Nate had to go to school to study—a place he will be more and more often as this quarter grinds along. That’s okay. We made peace with our feelings this weekend and that makes me feel good.

The girls got off to a great start this morning, and I feel awesome about that. I suppose I should start my research now, but I felt the need to post badly before I tackled my project!! Perhaps the wheels are turning….Speaking of wheels, my engine light is on in my car. I should take care of that this week as well...

Tata for now!
*me*