marathon

If there's anyone who hasn't completely given up on this blog. . . HELLO!  Fall is in full swing in Northern Virginia.  It is beautiful outside.  I love the changing colors.  I'm a bit sad that Philip and I don't have time/energy to be outside simply enjoying the weather, but alas, we soldier on.  This weekend we actually had our first (kind of snow).  I've been very amused by everyone getting all riled up on the few inches of snow that has accumulated on some parts of the east coast.  Really people?  It is the last week in October.  Snow is totally fair game.  This picture is actually from a Halloween blizzard that I still recount from 1991.  Our first grade class had gone "trick or treating" to the nursing home, and I remember that it was starting to snow around the time that we all began our walk home in our little jackets.  Bizarre what you remember, huh?  Little did I know, it was a MN storm that would live in infamy.  So, really this squaking about some Halloween flurries in DC is really nothing.

Today Philip and I were going into DC to have lunch at a small group friend's apartment downtown (her mom was in town from Chicago and had volunteered to cook some yummy Vietnamese food for the clan).  Traffic was a bit heavier than it would have been on a Sunday afternoon because a main thoroughfare was closed for the Marine Corps Marathon.  As we were driving we saw a group of people running.  I commented to Philip, "I really don't totally get marathons.  I mean people pay a LOT of money to, well, torture themselves"  (I hate running so the thought of a marathon is as pleasant of a thought as having hot needles poked into my skin.  I don't know how people physically do it and I don't know WHY someone would do it - well I cognitively can hold an intellectually understanding of why but it's still pretty ludicrous to me).  Philip looked at me, paused and then said, "um, that is exactly what a Ph.D. is - it makes about as much sense - you pay a lot of money to TORTURE YOURSELF"  Not buying it, I explained that you invest the pain in a doctoral program so that you can have a more lucrative job (really I'm doing this so I can be lazy later on and hire someone to clean my house each week --- somedays that's what i have to keep repeating to myself to keep me enduring this insanity).  I insisted that was different that running a race and then being able to say "oh I'm healthy".  Naturally running one race does not make you healthy for the rest of your life.  Philip countered that going to grad school does not mean you will have a good job.  Okay, very very very true.  (and by the way - that is not my aim - I'm feeling so worn out right now that I'm like "yeah, when this school stuff is done and I've completed my postdoc fellowship I need a BREAK!"  though it is fun making Philip squirm by saying "yeah, maybe I'll finish this degree and then just be done"  --- you can almost see the dollar signs in his eyes as his blood pressure and anxiety rise thinking about getting no payback from this significant "investment").  

Speaking of torturing myself, I need to get back to estudiaring.  The last several nights Philip has actually been gone because he's had to work at a squadron function (apparently the LRS has a very big reputation for having a pretty wild haunted house each Oct and it brings in a lot of fundraiser $, so he's had to do due diligence and be there quite a bit).  I've done some cleaning and made a batch of homemade challah french toast to have on hand for Philip, so my domestic duties for the day are about done (okay, except for the laundry waiting for me upstairs) but I need to check the box on a few more academic tasks before the night is over.

I'm very excited that Thanksgiving is mere weeks away and that we are beginning to see signs of Christmas.  This means that the end of the semester will soon be in sight.  YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Philip was so sweet on Friday.  I got home and collapsed and proclaimed that another week was finished (one small victory at a time, right?).  He was all fired up and was like "you did great baby - you punched it in the face!!!!"  I looked at him weary and exhausted and was like "um, no not quite punched it in the face.  I survived."  For now, that's all I'm asking for - survival and endurance.

You have NO. IDEA. how much I am looking forward to vacation in December.  WOW.