It's finally over.....

It's been a week since I took the candidacy exam, and this is the first day I've really felt somewhat normal again. It's really hard being completely stressed out for weeks on end. I'm so overjoyed that it's over, though. I think part of the reason for that is that I've decided that no matter what the result is, I'm not taking it again. If I pass, obviously I won't have to take it again, and if I fail both sections, I'm just going to leave. The only way I'd take it a third time is if I only pass one of the sections, or if the department makes me an offer I can't refuse if I don't pass either section. I do take some comfort in the fact that I walked out of both sections feeling like I couldn't write down any more than what I did. I think that's a good sign. Now it's all in the graders' hands.

Other than that, not much else has been happening with me lately. I've been kind of zombie mode for a good chunk of the past week. I also had to get reacquainted with my research, which took the better part of a few days. However, I now feel like I can remember what I've actually done and make some decent progress. Of course, I really need to make progress in the next month, since I'm presenting a poster at the Ocean Science Meeting in late February. However, the location is a damn good incentive to actually get work done. Going to Hawaii in February sounds wonderful, even though the weather here hasn't been too terrible lately. (We are supposed to get some ice tomorrow, though, so the previous sentence may be nixed by then.)

Today I spent a good hour or so preparing my lesson for the Meteo 3 kids tomorrow. I'm actually not that stressed out about it because I've taught this stuff before. Plus, all the stuff I need to cover in lab this week is pretty basic stuff. I realize that some of them will have a hard time with isoplething and converting units, but that's what I'm there for. The only thing that is really annoying is that because we had today off for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, one of my labs is behind the other two. So, one day in the near future I'll have to cover twice the material in lab and have them stagger when they hand stuff in. It's not really a big deal, though, because I'm gone for a week for the OS meeting, so all my labs are going to have to do that at some point. It's still annoying, though.

On Saturday I went to Greensburg to visit with Ingrid and just celebrate the fact that the candidacy exam is over. The weather wasn't very pleasant for driving, though. Outside of Altoona, I encountered very strong winds. Then I passed under a sign that has its lights flashing when there are strong cross winds. Every time I see that sign and it's blinking, I have already gone about ten miles before reaching that sign and have already experienced the strong cross winds. It seems like a pointless sign to have where they have it. When I got to places that were more sheltered from the wind, the snow started. It wasn't too bad, mainly because I took it pretty cautiously. I wasn't driving too slowly, but still slow enough to apparently piss people off. But, I'd like to live a little bit longer, so I'm more cautious. Call me crazy about that.

Anyway, I made it to the mall ok, and just people watched until Ingrid got there. Then we got lunch, and walked around the mall for a bit. The White Barn Candle Company (affiliated with Bath & Body Works) was having a semi-annual sale (like most of the mall, it seemed), and they had some of their candles half off, which is quite a sale considering how expensive they normally are. I got a mint chocolate chip ice cream candle. It smells so good. And it makes my mouth water just thinking about it. That was really the only purchase I made. Then we continued to walk around the mall, stopping here and there looking at things and just making idle conversation about the TV shows we watch and stuff of that sort. It was just a good time.

Then we went to see Rumor Has It, which is a very cute movie, but not entirely what the commercials make it out to be. This doesn't really surprise me, though, because commercials rarely show what any movie is really about. I'd still recommend it to anyone to go see it, or at least rent it. I'm just glad it's one of those movies that has an ending. These days it seems that movie makers feel that they can just end movies wherever the hell the feel like it, even if it doesn't feel like an ending. One example of this is Prime. That was also a good movie (and again, not what the commercials made it out to be), but the end didn't really feel like an ending. I want a movie to provide closure to the story it's presenting.

After the movie, we went out for dinner, and then I left to come back here. The drive wasn't too bad. Any moisture that may have been on the roads evaporated quickly due to the very strong winds that came behind the cold front. Once I got to unsheltered areas just before Altoona, there was blowing and drifting snow, and again there was a very helpful sign (electric, nonetheless) saying that I could encounter blowing snow and to drive cautiously when I had noticed that myself for a decent amount of time before that. I swear, Pennsylvania must spend more money on useless signs that on useful ones, like, for instance, speed limits signs. That's just a small gripe from me, though.

Well, I think that's about it for now. I'm heading off to watch the Golden Globes. I'm kind of an awards show junkie. Plus, I've actually seen some of the movies that are nominated, which is kind of cool, since usually around this time, the nominated movies aren't ones I've seen. So, I'm off and cheering on the movies and TV shows I want to win.