Daily Newsie

Good news: Whatever ulcers were beginning to nibble at my stomach lining have receded upon the news that our wedding date is now July 4, a date that has been at the center of much wedding-related consternation for nearly a year. See, several family members couldn’t make a July 4 wedding, so we decided to move it to Labor Day weekend to give everyone enough time to get to Kentucky and get home. Even though that made it easier for all involved, we weren’t convinced we wanted August 31 to be our anniversary; rather, we had our hearts set on Independence Day for several reasons. First, it’s an automatic day off. Second, it’s celebrated with sparkly things in the sky and the best march of all time, “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Third, it’s always been my favorite holiday.

While we were in my hometown last weekend, The Fiance’ and I brought up the subject with my father and stepmother, as well as with my brothers, all of whom are traveling about 12 hours to get here in August. We wanted to make sure no one was angry about making a lengthy and expensive trip for a “fake” wedding, you know? It was my father who came up with a fabulous idea: The Fiance’ and I will elope on July 4 (is it an elopement if everyone knows about it?), then use Labor Day weekend as an excuse to have a big celebration, introduce the families, and show everyone around southcentral Kentucky. Win/win.

This is awesome, because I never really got into wedding planning like I thought I would. I read stories from brides-to-be on my LiveJournal 2008 Weddings group, and I just can’t fathom handling that many details. I have the greatest respect for people who can … but it’s not my thing to go taste-testing for wedding cake or debate the merits of fingertip veil versus fascinator. I just want to be married already, and I’m happy our families are OK with the idea of having a celebration rather than a full-blown wedding. I still have to look at buffet menus and order cupcakes, but I can do so fully relaxed and knowing that we will already be married, and that’s the most important thing.

I and my ulcers thank you, family and family-to-be.

I am not permitted to go in the other room because The Fiance’ is busily planning a weekend away for us. See, tomorrow is my 27th birthday, and I mentioned to him that I would like to go away for a little while (preferably somewhere that has a museum because I love museums), so he suggested that he plan a mini-vacation. I usually do the planning around here, and I’m always grateful to have it taken off my hands. What a fabulous present!

We’re leaving Saturday afternoon following my meeting with the mayor, who — can you believe it? — wants me to help run her campaign this year. I like our mayor and I think she’s done a good job, so I am more than happy to pitch in. Truthfully, I would do it for free, but she said there’s a stipend that we’ll discuss. Twist my arm!

The mayor’s phone call came on the heels of some amazing news from the college on the hill: 1.) I got a 4.0 this semester! 2.) I’ve been recommended (by the head of the department) for a graduate assistantship, and a professor has already requested me to be her research assistant! 3.) My final paper in Org Rhetoric was so good that Dr. J. wants to submit it for publication! We met the other day to hammer out what needs to be done to it, and I’m actually excited about rewriting it. Pathetic, I know … but hey! I could be published, which means that someday a struggling graduate student might reference me in their paper! The mind, it boggles!

Sorry to burp rainbows and puppies all over your internet, but it’s just been a good, good week. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the weekend!

As it turns out, Dr. T. didn’t mind that my paper was a little short; in fact, he praised my concise rationale and literature review and said I did an excellent job building my case. I still got an 89, but that’s because I didn’t flesh things out as well as I could have; I neglected a few areas that would have made the whole shebang more well-rounded. But still, he said he’s looking forward to chairing my thesis committee and seeing how this study works out in the end … and I have to say, I’m excited for him to be my thesis guru. The subpar grades I receive in his class sometimes make me so angry, but once I calm down I realize that he has valid points, and with him leading my thesis I should kick everyone’s boohiney into next week.

Today’s project is for Applied Organizational Communication, a case study of a former employer and how its employees disengage themselves from it. Unfortunately, I was told I can’t use the pseudonyms my participants chose (sorry, Princess Contessa Bananahammock), but I think it’ll be good anyway. I had some excellent sources.

The latest news is that Strawberry now has a smattering of friends on the balcony: Tomato, Parsley and Pepper. We spent yesterday prowling around town looking for things to plant (and shopping for wedding rings), then had to take three — three! — trips to Lowe’s because our new leaf-patterned lamp had two broken cousins that, of course, we picked out first. It was rather annoying that all the returns person did was giggle a little every time we walked back through the door, but I suppose if we were more aggressive people we could have gotten a discount. The third lamp we picked up is quite lovely and all in one piece, so we’re content.

Back to work! I’m the idiot who neglected to back up the first draft of this paper, so when The Fiance’ rebuilt his laptop the file was deleted. He warned me and I told him I had it all under control, but after a frantic morning trying to find it I figured out that I never backed it up. Whoops. Luckily I have a paper copy, but it’s still a pain trying to type the whole thing over again.

Happy Sunday and a very happy birthday to my Grammy, who turns 83 today!

My research papers are never as long as they’re supposed to be, simply because it doesn’t take me 25 pages to say what I need to say about a particular topic. Some of my professors are cool with that — they don’t want to read 25 pages of babbling to reach a page quota any more than I want to write it — but I have a feeling my Family Communication professor won’t dig the fact that my “no more than 25″-page paper is more like … 16. A solid 16, but still. That includes cover page and bibliography, which he explicitly said do not count toward the final page tally.

The thing is, I’m completely tapped out. I’ve written all I can think of to write on the topic of family communication and cancer. I have something like 18 sources, which is exactly the right amount, and I still can’t come up with anything else to write. So do I make a big push tomorrow to meet 25 pages (or at least 20), or do I hand it in as is and trust that he knows a concisely-written paper when he sees one? He said no more than 25 pages, but does that mean 16 is OK? I have a comfortable mid-90s grade in Family Comm, but that doesn’t mean I want to risk it by turning in a too-short paper.

All this talk of page guidelines kills me. I came from a profession that valued brevity and now I’m supposed to barf up two dozen pages on apologia/cancer/organizational disengagement (three different classes, thank God). I suppose in the morning I could read a few more articles and sprinkle them in there, but really … do I want to sacrifice quality for quantity?