Good news, bad weather, and procrastination

The weather's been beautiful all week. Sunny, warm, the type of spring weather that just makes you want to spend all your time outside. Today is Saturday. Today is the day I could spend all day outside. Guess what the weather looks like today? Crappy. Cold, cloudy and drizzly. Stupid weather.

So, the good news. My professor e-mailed me about my syllabus (he wants me to make a few changes: I guess I'll think about it). And he also mentioned that my pre-lim answer was really good with an exclamation point. I was very excited about this, because I haven't gotten feedback from anyone yet. Then, I was talking to the professor I TA for and told him one of my professor's had let me know I had done a good job. And he said, was it _____ because he told me you did a great job. Yes, I did so good, he's telling other people. He's seeking them out in the hallways to say, "did you hear about how great Stacia's pre-lim answer was?" Ok, he's not doing that, but it's still cool to know that he is talking about it. Makes me feel good.

Thank you for all the wonderful comments about my red couch. Sometimes I feel funny putting up stuff like that, but when I get so many encouraging comments it makes me feel better. Maybe my blog has become my new red couch. Wes promised me that when we get room, I can get another red couch and I can pick it out myself. He really is a great guy.

Let me tell you what a great guy he is. He's a little cash strapped right now. He's moving, I'm moving, he has some credit card debt and we're planning a wedding. Now, he is receiving a huge bonus in September for being in the navy for 15 years, but until then, it's tight. I have received some money from my grandparents for school and I've managed to save most of it but the plan was to use it for dissertation research trips, if I couldn't get other funding. I told Wes I would send him a check. It wouldn't wipe me out and I know that the money situation is just temporary until September. Yesterday, my husband sold one of his stamps instead. He collects stamps, so it's not like he got a couple hundred dollars. It was a little more than that. For one stamp. He told me he just felt funny about taking my school money, even though we're married. See, the first time I got married, my husband had a bit of debt and I used ALL my school money to pay off his bills. And then when it was gone, he told me we didn't have any money for me to go to school. I know that now, Wes will make sure I finish no matter what, but I thought it was sweet that he would sacrifice his beloved stamps to make sure I had my safety account for school. Because he doesn't want me to ever feel like I'm in a position of dependence on him either. He's a great guy. I love him.

Paper grading update: Did you know that reading is an excellent way to gain historical knowledge? Now that I know that, I'm going to quit banging my head on the wall and start reading instead. I think some of these papers were written by obviousman. And one student quoted the back cover of the book: THE BACK COVER OF THE BOOK. And stated he was quoting the back of the book, instead of finding the quote in the actual book. Lazy MF.

I guess I should finish procrastinating and start working on that pesky dissertation proposal. It's not going to write itself. I wonder if I read something that would help?