The power of sleep

I am a night owl. I usually can't fall asleep before 12 most nights. And I like to get up early, just so I can take a nap later. But I don't always get a chance to nap. Ergo, I am often very tired.

Lately, though, the stomach department has been not performing up to standards, and I've been feeling more tired than usual, so I've been getting adequate sleep (not more sleep. Just the minimum).

Here's the fun part: I have been getting so much done!

Normally on any given Sunday, I go grocery shopping, and go to the library. I will probably cook, and may or may not do the dishes.

Today, I rolled out of bed at 7am, got dressed, and biked to the farmers market, then to the grocery store and then home. I ate breakfast and read the paper after I showered. I installed the air conditioning unit in my window. I started a batch of cold press coffee. I brushed the cat. I took a short nap.

Then I ate lunch! Normally, I nap til 11 before I even leave the house. I read a book for a couple hours, then headed to the library. I watched a movie, and ripped the CDs from the library onto my computer. It was too hot to cook, so I ordered Indian takeout using a groupon for a restaurant near my house. I wrote a note for my state senator. I made a fresh batch of soymilk.

I didn't need to do any dishes because I did them last night before I went to bed!

What is wrong with me? Maybe I should go to bed at 10 every night? I'll see if I can keep it up.

MSS St. Louis

Well, spring break came and went. After a weekend at my mom's house (and beating the pants off of her in scrabble), and a few days bumming around my house at school (and beating the pants off one of my housemates in scrabble, playing a LOT of pokemon white, and watching a couple seasons of LOST), I went with 6 fellow students and professor to St. Louis for a sociology conference.

I had a lot of fun! The ten hour drive through Iowa was kind of boring, but I couldn't sleep. A few of us just talked and I played more Pokemon. We stayed at the Millennium Hotel right downtown, a couple blocks from the hotel the conference was in. It snowed almost the whole time, so the short walk was really cold and uncomfortable. Our hotel was being used by the National Conference of Black Engineers, so it was fun to see all the southern kids who hadn't seen snow very much if at all.

The conference itself was cool. I stayed in my women's studies comfort zone and went to sessions that focused on gender and sexuality issues. Topics ranged from the feelings of loss of transmen and their partners to rural lesbian identity frames. It was really interesting to see what everyone was researching. There were hundreds of sessions with 3 or 4 papers discussed in each session. Crazy to see how many sociologists are studying in the Midwest.

Our own presentation was good. Not well attended, but we did well. Our small audience turned into a really interesting discussion of what students need out of sociology programs, classes and teachers. Probably haven't mentioned it here yet, but we studied how students feel about the post-graduation planning process. We found that the earlier students begin planning, they also have higher levels of self-efficacy (confidence they'll be able to achieve their post-college career goals) and most positive attitudes (less anxious, more excited). Other groups studied transferable skills, social networks, career resource use, etc. We focused on attitudes, beliefs and plans.

Now, it's back to school. 2 months before I graduate! Ahh! So excited! Now I just have to find a place to live and work and time to finish everything I need to finish by then.

A mostly good time

So, with the exception of the fact that I must write this on my netbook. I don't mind writing it on my netbook but it means that my regular laptop is kaput. Why can't I find my install cds? When it go the blue screen in January, I had to wait a few weeks to restart it. But it restarted without the install CD. A few days ago, it got the blue screen, but restarted an hour later. I've been trying for 3 hours tonight. It hasn't been working. I guess I'll try it tomorrow or something. Or later on tonight. I'm impatient.

Otherwise, I guess I'll be taking a trip home soon. Who knows when, but I will!

In any case, I have to go home to have my mom sign a few forms for my trip abroad! Shazaam! I'll be going to Thailand in January. Yay! I'm really excited! I've been wanting to do this since freshman year, but it wasn't offered this year, so I went to south central Europe instead. The nice surprise, though? It's only $3,614! Most trips are around $5,000. I feel privileged.

Also, I feel accomplished. Since December, I've been planning a day for Robyn Ochs (http://robynochs.com) to come to campus and speak. It finally happened yesterday! I did the contacting, the contracting, finding the funding, PR, etc. I know it's poor practice of me, but I didn't really use help from others except for funding from organizations (including the Grose Family Endowment, the Soc/Anthro, Social Work and Family Studies, American Studies and Women's studies departments, the Gender and Sexuality Center, GLOW and the Student Organizations Committee), as well as Prof. Bill Poehlmann, Willa Simmet, Brian Walpole, Pierce Devol and his mom to help with transportation. It was a really great day! We were late to the first class, but the class is 85 minutes long, so it's probably all right. She spoke to two women's studies classes, a human sexuality class, and then did a lecture called Beyond Binaries and a workshop called Choosing the Label. It was a very full day, and also very successful. She spoke to around 110 people total yesterday. Pretty cool.

Anyway, today was also the Day of Silence (http://dayofsilence.org). We had an estimated 85 people participate in that, and GLOW raised $175 from t-shirt sales. Awesome!

Let's have some fun!

A few fun things happened today:

1) KT got a ticket! Nyah nyah...!

2) I hung out with KT!

3) I uploaded the pictures I want on facebook from my trip. Checkem out!

4) I beat Mom in scrabble by 180 points. Sheyeah! New high score of 404!

Also, I am deciding what pictures from my trip to submit to the school photo contest. I can submit 5. I've narrowed it down to 12.... so if while looking through my pictures, you see one that you think fit these criteria: (1) cross-cultural content, (2) artistic/technical quality and (3) reproducibility for photo exhibit, Then let me know! If it's one of the 12 I have in mind, it'll be useful. (Otherwise, you're just gonna confuse me!)

: )

Awesome, I am.

So, I have to go to bed, but I wanted to share this with you.

I wrote 4 papers this weekend, starting Friday at 5 and ending at 12:30am Monday morning. And I threw an awesome Halloween Party that took up 25 hours of my weekend (cleaning, party, sleep, cleaning, shower). Luckily, I got an extra hour from the end of DST.

Anyway, I have to get up at 7, so goodnight. I just wanted to share that with you.

I'll do less homework-related posts. Even though I think about it a lot, I understand it's probably a little boring and you could care less. Ergo, I'll post about a wider variety of topics starting soon.