PhD Update

My new motto for school is "Do something instead of nothing" since I've a few challenges in the past few months of getting it done.

So, here are some of the "something's" I've done.

I went to Ogden to visit with my new Chair one day and discuss the direction of my dissertation and feedback on an upcoming conference presentation.

I went with my CFF (Critical Friends Forever) who also visited with her chair.  We went from Ogden to Logan and ate dinner at my favorite place there Firehouse.

We followed it up with a private screening of PhD Movie which was pretty funny.  We also thought it was funny that we matched and that the janitor left his cool Ghostbusters vacuum out for us to play with.

Also in the fall, I headed out with my CFF and other friend to my first national conference in California with the Association of Literary Educators and Researchers.  It was a really stressful time at home and I had health concerns of my own going on so of course caught a cold the day we left.  My kids were sweet and let me take their favorite blankies with me and a host of cold medicine.  

It was actually a fun and very productive trip.  

Here we are boarding the plane.  I'd never flown with Jet Blue and loved that airline.  Each seat get's their own TV!

I messaged pictures to my kids along the way, mostly to make them jealous like these ones of me watching Full House on my personal plane TV and going to IHop, which Carter's been wanting to go to.

We spent the first day there by meeting a lot of really famous literary people and trying Uber for the first time.  I was determined to see the ocean and so we headed there to explore for a while.  I had the worst migraine but was happy to smell that air for a few hours.  

Our hotel had cool elevators and we were upgraded due to a scheduling fluke to the top floor that had it's own executive lounge.  We joked that it also came with a fake butler named "Stuart" and would joke about Stuart doing our bidding on the whole vacation.  I loved the lounge though that was stocked with free food at all hours of the day, plus the hotel had a pool and hot tub.  We ladies shared a room (we are grad students after all) and watched endless episodes of shows on the food network while we lounged and fixed our presentations when we went into panic mode. 

At one of the receptions, we met a few new people including Jerry Johns who was so gracious and kind to us measely grad students.  He has been around for decades, written countless books and is in the Reading Hall of Fame.  He even came and supported one of our presentations, which was very nice.  

At one the dinners, there was a live band and a mashed potato bar in martini glasses.  We danced a little but mostly watched our professors dance which was highly entertaining.  

My cold reached it's peak the night before my presentation and by the day of, I was feeling good enough to talk and get it over with but I do regret feeling like I wasn't at my optimum capacity.  In fact, I was exhausted afterward.

I also presented with this group of grad students in another seminar from USU and was glad to get both of them done on day one so I could relax for the rest of the trip.

I finally got to jamberry my toes, which I had hoped to do for months.  Here we are in the hotel room enjoying some time to ourselves as my friend prepped her presentation for day two.

We spied this skirt on a stewardess that we liked.  

At one of the final receptions we met to more famous Professors:  Linda Gambrell and Mary Rowe.  In the reading world they are BIG and we were star struck!  

Heading home after a great trip with these ladies!  We are hoping to make it a usual thing each year.