The Accidental Boilermaker

I swear, if one more person calls me "just a masters student," grr... It's like I am some kind of sub-human graduate student. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive. 2 students so far have emailed me and asked if there is still class tomorrow. Secretly, I wish I could say no, but I am obligated to say, "if the University doesn't cancel school, then we still have class." So sad, the death of a snow day - but I still have hope. A lot can happen overnight.

"The Women's Health Initiative, which includes a large-scale randomized trial of HRT [hormone replacement therapy], and a similar study in Europe were initiated because there was enough evidence to believe there might be a benefit of HRT in primary [heart disease] prevention, yet enough uncertainty that it was ethical to randomize half the participants to placebo." - American Heart Association 2001 So if you are uncertain enough, then it's ethical? The funny/sad thing is that the risks of HRT tend to outweight the benefits. Other fun things that have happened so far this week: 1. An Air Force ROTC guy found me at the Purdue rec-center and wondered if I would teach yoga for a bunch of air force people. (Sounds cooler than it actually is.) 2. A kid I don't know came up to me in the rec-center and asked if I knew any good arm stretches and then proceeded to talk to me for like 15 min. (After I mentioned my husband, he was gone in about 30 sec.) 3. A girl I don't ...

Today at the dentist, the hygienist lady thought Nate was my brother. Thursday one of my professors gave me a break on our big end-of-the-year paper because I'm only a masters student. Monday two of my students guessed I could run the mile in 5 minutes.

I know first impressions aren't always what they seem, but I'm pretty sure this semester is going to be tough. I've got at least one research paper or presentation for every class and a couple of my classes have weekly homework assignments. (That's one difference between undergrad and grad school - less daily homework, more big projects.) And even though this was only the first week of school, I was absolutely dead at the end. I went to bed at 10:30 both Thursday and Friday night. I'm pretty sure I can handle it all if teaching doesn't kill me first. MWF, I start teaching at 7:30am and finally finish at 11:30am, after instructing the same course four time in a row. It's not so bad, a little repetitive, but my students seem like good kids. I might need to start taking coffee in the morning to get up my cheerful demeanor (haha). But this semester I start classes for my gero minor, that makes me happy because I'm finally studying something that trul...

With the start of a new semester, I've been doing a lot of thinking. We had to take Penny to the vet the other day for her post-adoption check-up and I realized I missed my calling. I was meant to be an animal nurse. Not a vet - that requires way too much school. But the nurse was just like a regular people nurse. She asked us questions before the vet came and basically did whatever the vet told her. And the best part, she probably gets to play with cute pets all day long! I never knew animal nurses existed. Then tonight, since nothing else was on, we dediced to watch American Gladitor. And I thought, hey I took Coach Han and Coach Cherry's strength training class for a couple semesters, I could be a gladitor. I'm still not sure about the slightly revealing outfits. Maybe I could ask for a more modest singlet. And I haven't decided on a name yet, but I'm open to suggestions.

I want everyone to meet Penelope aka Penny, Pen, and Petite Chou Chou. She came from the Almost Home animal shelter in Lafayette. She is the sweetest cat. You are welccome to come and play any time.