Underwater Hockey

My usual gym class on Tuesday nights has been canceled this semester. I play basketball once a week, but I like to have at least one other exercise activity - that way if I miss one, I've still done SOMETHING!

So I have joined a team that plays underwater hockey (purely coincidentally, of course, on Tuesday nights....).

Say what now?

It's this thing.



I learned about it from other people who scuba dive, and a lot of the people on the team are scuba divers. Basically, you wear a mask and fins in the pool, and you hit around a puck on the bottom. The quirk is that everyone has to breathe at some point, so there is some strategy involved in which players are at the surface taking a breath and which are available for passing and defending on the bottom.



My first week I was terrible - they play from 8:30 - 10:00 pm, but by halfway through I was breathing so hard that I could barely make it down to the bottom before I would have to come up for air again. Last week was much better, and we practiced some exercises so the beginners (there are a bunch of other new players as well as myself) could learn techniques.



I'm excited about this new adventure, and the players are a friendly lot.

To new activities - cheers!

Cabbage Rolls

I had a whole head of cabbage from the CSA, so I made cabbage rolls.



I didn't realize until after I started peeling apart the cabbage that there are a LOT of leaves in there. I ate this for a week straight!



And, the plate presentation:

3rd Year Grad School vs. 3rd Year Undergrad

In the course of my odd school career, I attended three years of community college before moving to a large four-year university where I spent another three years. In total, it took me six years to get my bachelor's degree. But I usually think of my undergrad years as those three years in university, as that was more the "classic" college experience.

My third (senior year for me) year in undergraduate school was my favorite year socially. It struck me the other day that I am coming up on my third year in grad school, and I feel a very similar way.

My first year in a new place is always awkward - it takes me a long time to make friends. In undergrad I didn't feel like I had anybody closer than acquaintance status until the end of my first year. My second year I spent getting to know those people better, expanding my circle of friends, becoming comfortable. But by my third year, I got to step back and finally enjoy and relax into those relationships I had built. When I walked into any class on the first day of a new semester, I knew most of the people, and it was easy to form project groups and study groups. On the weekend, I didn't hesitate to call people up and have them over for dinner, or suggest a night on the town. I was often invited to join in social activities, and I accepted when I could. It was so comforting to know I had people there for me - and I happily helped out my friends in return.

It's been similar in grad school. My first year was a little lonely - it was discouraging to start from square one again in making friends. But I am fortunate to be surrounded by incredible people, and in World's Best School the population is used to social awkwardness, so I wasn't much out of place. :) This past year (my second in grad school) I did the same thing I did in undergrad - I worked to grow the relationships with people I knew.

It's the close personal friends that take the longest for me. The ones that you can call at midnight and you know they'll pick up. You don't call your math class partner when you need three eggs for cookies, and you don't send an email to your research group when you need to vent. You call your personal friends. I wrote about this, that I felt lonely without this last category.

But I think, now beginning my third year here, I am finally where I was my third year of undergrad - I finally have those kind of friends. For example, I recently stepped out a limb and with some trepidation invited a bunch of girls out to a girl's night - and you know what? They were all thrilled to come, and we had a fabulous time! Or take last week, when I attended an incoming graduate student welcome event. As I wandered about, first somebody would stop me to chat, then someone else would pull me into their circle of conversation, then someone else would invite me over to talk. It felt really good to be welcomed on sight by the current grad students, many of whom I am good friends with. Not only do they know who I am, they LIKE me. Who'd have thought?

But do you know what truly blew my socks off, and assured me that next year is going to be awesome socially?

Friday morning is traditionally a coffee hour, a very popular event for the MechE department. I arrived last Friday morning for the first one of the semester at 8am - it's an early event - and when I walked through the door, heads looked up and smiled, and a few people actually cheered. I got FIST PUMPS, people. How much of an ego boost is THAT?

This next year is going to rock.

To friends - cheers!

CSA Special - Pasta Salad

I have joined a CSA - which means I have bought a share of a local farm's harvest. I worked it out, and it's substantially cheaper than what I buy at the grocery each week. Every week the farm gathers up the harvest, brings it right to campus (how convenient!), and people who have a share come by and claim their food. I have a fruit share, and a veggie share. I am sharing the veggies with another friend of mine, because each share feeds 2-4 people, and I can't eat that much by myself! I have no such trouble with fruit. I could eat my weight in fruit.

The food each week varies depending on the season, but this week's veggies were:

1 squash, 3 lbs. tomatoes, 2 lbs. bell peppers, 4 hot peppers, 1 head lettuce, 1 lb. salad greens, 1 lb. onions, 2 eggplants, and 1.5 lb. green beans.

Thank goodness my friend is coming by to take half of that off my hands! And the fruit was:

1 small cantaloupe, 1 small watermelon, and seven peaches.

I was invited to a Labor Day BBQ, and I volunteered to bring the pasta salad. Well, I intended to make a pasta salad, but it ended up being more a vegetable salad with a few macaronis thrown in for good measure...

Small red onion, bunch of tomatoes, half a chile pepper, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, can of whole corn, can of red kidney beans, minced garlic clove, and of course the pasta. All tossed in a dressing of vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, and 1 tsp. chili powder, and dash salt and sugar.

I had none left to take back from the BBQ. :)

Communication about Lab Direction

I realize PIs have varied management styles. I get along splendidly with my advisor, but there is one area where I feel he could be a bit more helpful. My PI does not discuss overall lab research direction with us, and does not inform us when (or if) he is hiring new people. Actually when I first began my graduate career, the current students in lab had no idea I was coming until I showed up one day in September two years ago (ack!) and joined the group meetings.

During my two years here, there have been three students in lab (small, I know): myself and two PhD students. One PhD student just graduated, and one is hot on the trail of a defense date. I was worried that I would be the only one left in lab this year.

But, it turns out that THREE new students are coming in this fall. Who knew?

One of them is a girl who used to be an undergraduate research assistant in our lab. The PhD student she was working under last spring didn't even know until a couple weeks ago that she was joining us! She will be continuing the work of the PhD she was working under, since he has graduated now.

The second student is only known to us current students by an off-hand reference the PI made one afternoon. We know it's a girl, but we don't know her name because the PI couldn't pronounce it. Thus we assume it's an international student, but who know what she will be working on. She hasn't shown up yet, but I imagine we'll see her pop in soon.

At this point I was really excited that perhaps this coming school year, we would be a lab of all three girls. How awesome would THAT be?

But just last night, I discovered that there will be a third student joining us. Do you know how I found out?

I was at a welcoming event for incoming grad MechE students, dutifully present as I am an officer in the grad student MechE club. As I mingled throughout the evening, I introduced myself yet again to a fresh-faced student, "Hi, I'm Miss Outlier. Are you enjoying yourself this evening?." As pleasantries ensued, I asked a standard question, "Do you know what lab you will be in?" Why yes, the student did. He quite calmly stated he would be working for my very own PI.

Well, news to me!

I said I was pleased to hear that, and looked forward to working together. "And what," I inquired, "do you plan to be working on?" "Solar cells!" he cheerfully replied.

Wait - what?

Our lab has absolutely nothing - nada - zip - to do with solar cells. We don't work with solar cell materials, we don't work with anything applied to solar cells - shoot, our lab is in the basement, we don't even SEE the sun! We work with plastic. We squash, heat, mold, melt, and cool all varieties of PLASTIC. Whither the silicon in that, I ask?

"Are you sure?" I plaintively asked. "Of course," said he, "I'm really interested in the project."

Yeah, you and me both, buddy.

So, we have a new student (male, bugger it.... just kidding, of course) who will be working on an entirely new area of research. This makes me very curious as to what the second girl student will be working on - something else in a new research direction? It's a little disconcerting, and I wish the PI would tell us where we are headed.

How does your PI communicate overall lab business? Does it come up in group meetings? A mass email? Rumors passed around at the water cooler? Not at all?

Overcoming Highschool Fears

I finished moving in a month ago in my new job as an RA for one of the undergrad dorms here on campus. Last week all my undergrads starting moving in, and now pretty much everybody is here. Classes start next Wednesday, after Labor Day.

I didn't anticipate how nervous I was going to be to meet all these girls (it's an all-girls dorm). I feel like it's a highschool popularity contest - will they like me? Will they feel comfortable talking to me? Why have I suddenly gone all awkward and shy? Why is this odd squeaky voice coming from my mouth, and why are my hands squeezed together behind my back? In short, people, why am I ducking and weaving to get to the shower in the morning, hoping none of the girls will pop out of their rooms and see me stumbling down the hall, rubbing my eyes, wiping the drool from my mouth and trying to smooth out the cowlick in my hair? I shouldn't be HIDING from my own girls, this is ridiculous!

Part of this nervousness comes from just the way I am used to living. I like to come home to my own quiet place by myself, fix dinner, put my feet up and watch TV and putter around on my computer for a little bit. I enjoy being social with my friends and sometimes with people in general, but being social tires me. I need to be by myself to recharge. So it's just daunting for me to think about coming home, and leaving my door open to a typical loud, noisy undergrad dorm.

Last night I came home after playing basketball, and I sat on my bed to work. Well that idea turned out just like you might suspect, and I ended up falling asleep. At about 9pm, a knock at my door woke me up. And I had the strangest reaction - I panicked. "Ack!" I thought, "I can't answer the door like this - I have pillow creases in my face, there are dirty dishes in my sink. I'm just not ready." And I thought to myself, maybe I'm not cut out for this job. If my reaction when my girls want to talk to me is to panic, this really isn't the place for me.

I was then fully awake, so I popped open my computer to check email. And I sat there on the bed, in the dark (so the girls wouldn't know I was home), and I felt so guilty. And I thought - you know what, I'm better than this. I've passed highschool, and frankly this is ridiculous.

So about 15 minutes later I opened my door, and wandered down to the kitchen. And wouldn't you know, there were a bunch of girls in the kitchen, and as I passed by they said "Miss Outlier! We're so glad to see you, come on in!" And do you know, they had made cookies for me.

Wait - aren't I supposed to be making cookies for them?

The cookies were delicious, and I sat and talked to the girls for a half hour or so, and played a card game. I got back to my room later, and I had a huge sense of relief. I got over my silly panic. They like me. They even made cookies for me, which is incredibly sweet.

This morning when I ran into other girls in the bathroom, I didn't duck and weave to get away. I knew their names and said hello and I didn't even worry about my cowlick. This job is going to turn out okay after all.

Monthly Sample: September Edition

I have decided to begin a monthly feature. I find that in the middle of a time of intense busyness, or intense stress, I think to myself that life is going to end and I will never, ever again have a full night's sleep. Then when life is good, I think to myself that oh, goodness, it wasn't that bad, and isn't the sun beautiful today?

So I would like to document, for my own purposes, how I am doing each month. I will note the level of my happiness, stress, and busyness (which I believe are unique, independent but probably correlated factors) on a scale of 1-10 each month. A monthly sample, if you will.

And being the engineer that I am, there is really only one thing to do with a monthly sample.

You chart it.

And so, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, I present the MatLab-generated control chart for the three main inputs in my life:



Now technically, this is just a run chart (not a control chart), because I'm not controlling anything and I don't yet have enough data to set proper control limits. But bear with me. I whipped this up in 15 minutes, so give me a break on the formatting - next month I will get the fonts bigger and all that. The only data so far on here is three points - one point for the month of September on each chart (happiness 8, stress 6, busyness 8). The other months are just placeholders, I will fill them in when we get there.

All I really want to note is that yes, I am quite happy. I am doing fun things I enjoy, and there are no deadlines looming in my future. I am stressed because I have too much to do and not enough time to do it. That fact happens to be correlated with busyness being high (given that it's the beginning of the semester and I'm doing orientation events for both undergrads in my role as an RA, and new graduates in my role as an officer in a graduate student club).

Ooh, the statistics we could run on this stuff....

Another day. For now, my dears, Miss Outlier is firmly in control.