Nail Polish and Structural Equation Modeling

How is your night shaping up? Mine looks something like this:

Missing from the picture: Copious amounts of Skittles

Things Accomplished:

1. Three coats of Sally Hansen Black Platinum applied to toe nails.
2. One coat of OPI I Juggle...Men applied to toe nails.
3. One too many handfulls of Skittles consumed.
4. Procrastination via blog reading (and I guess blog writing now too!).

Things Yet to Do:

1. Multiple Imputation for missing data.
2. Perform a Principal Components Analysis.
3. Perform a Factor Analysis.
4. Write up results.
5. Read about and try to comprehend Structural Equation Modeling.

Clearly I have my priorities in order, right? Shouldn't I get to have a cute pedicure to go along with my data analysis? #gradschoolprobs

I hope y'all are having a good night & that you too can attempt to overcome your procrastination :)

Great Weekend in Nashville

This weekend I got to really dig into something I love. If you are thinking it was football, you would be wrong. While I did watch "the big game" with D and my parents, I feel mostly like grumpy cat when it comes to the Super Bowl.

How does football work again?

So if the Super Bowl wasn't the highlight of my weekend, what was? The Music Industry. Songwriting. Studio Recording. I wasn't the one singing or producing tracks, but I did get a chance to see a show at the Bluebird and see a great documentary about a very famous recording studio in LA.

If you are new around the blog or don't remember, I love the Nashville music industry. I actually love it enough that I convinced a graduate school to pay me to move to Nashville and study the industry! So even though I did not get a lot of "work" done this weekend, my weekend activities were like field trips, right?

If you haven't seen the show Nashville or are not familiar with Nashville as a city, the Bluebird Cafe is a music venue where songwriters perform their original work to sold out crowds every night. It is not commercial at all. Come to think of it, it is actually in a run-down old strip mall. Regardless of its aesthetics, it is undeniably THE place to see the most talented songwriters in Nashville perform.


I went to the early show on Friday night to see one of D's family members play a in a round with five other talented songwriters. The music styles ranged from traditional folksy country to Motown. Everyone did a great job, and I had a great time just soaking in the atmosphere. This little club is the place where Taylor Swift was discovered, where the movie The Thing Called Love was filmed, and where hundreds of songwriters have played and made connections that led to more successful careers. Needless to say, I had a great time.

The second super exciting thing I did this weekend was see a screening of the documentary Sound City at my local theater. Y'all, really, if you get a chance to see this film, please do. It was probably the best documentary I've seen since Searching for Sugarman (which was also awesome!). The film was made by Dave Grohl. Grohl is the drummer from Nirvana, frontman for the Foo Fighters, and generally seems like a great guy. He follows the history of the sound board at the Sound City Recording studio in LA from first recording albums on bands like the Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, and Tom Petty to Nirvana. Sadly this studio is now closed because of the availability of digital recording. This film is definitely a must see!

Did you all do anything fun over the weekend? Have you ever been to the Bluebird?

PS: Sorry for the lack of pictures! I took a few at the Bluebird, but my internet is being incredibly spotty this week. I am hoping it will be a quick fix :( I hate having to deal with the cable/internet company!

What I've Been Up To

The last time I wrote a blog post about the happenings in my life was when my car got vandalized while I was living in Kentucky and working for my Alma Mater. So much has changed since that sad day! I have yet to get the almost imperceptible scratches fixed on my car, and that could be because so much is going on. Getting settled in a new place, starting a new job (or a new program of study), and being involved in the ever complicated "growing up" process has left me worn out!

I moved from Kentucky to Nashville over the summer to prepare to start graduate school. It has been a dream of mine to pursue a career in academia, and I was lucky enough to be offered a spot in a great PhD program in sociology. It is exciting, difficult, and while I am loving my time in school, I realized that I will not get my PhD and be on the job market until I am almost 30! It doesn't seem that far away, but really, six more years of school might not pass by too quickly.

There have been some great things and people in my life that have made my time in Nashville great so far.

Of course, D is doing well! He is in Public Health school now and is trying to prepare to apply for medical school! It will be so exciting to live in the same city again (hopefully!) after he gets done with his program. We live about four hours apart now. The furthest apart we have ever lived is when we lived on opposite sides of the globe, so Kentucky to Tennessee is nothing compared to Mexico to Japan. Needless to say, we see each other much more frequently in this iteration of our long-distance relationship!

I am also loving where I live. If you have seen the awesome new show Nashville, you may have seen clips of my neighborhood. I live in the cool, walkable area of town that has a plethora of coffee shops, stores, restaurants, and even a cool nonprofit movie theatre where I have gotten to see great films such as Beasts of the Southern Wild, Moonrise Kingdom, and Searching for Sugarman. I got so lucky in finding a great place to live within my budget and within walking distance to my school.

So, in short, life is good! I've met great new people, learned cool things, and have started a great new chapter. I am sad to have left Kentucky but love Nashville, so it is kind of a struggle to figure out where I fit between the two.

Have you gone through any huge changes lately or are you firmly planted where wou are? Also, has anyone gotten into the show Nashville? It is one of my not-so-secret life goals that I want to be an extra in the show!

Not too Busy

via

So, it is pretty clear that I have let my little blog fall by the wayside since graduating from college. It is so easy to let life take over and forget to do the little things that make you happy.

I'm sure y'all can relate. Anytime a friend, coworker, or really anyone suggests starting something new it is much easier to say "I'm too busy" and move on with your day. Every day I hear people saying this, and while it is true that we all live busy, hectic lives, it is important to be intentional about how we spend our time.

For that reason, I'm back on the blog wagon! I have had a great time since graduating in May 2011, but I have not chronicled my activities, hopes, and dreams here. I want to be intentional about blogging. To connect with people around the country and the globe, to keep track of the things that go on in my own busy, hectic life, and to process my day through writing is a privilege that I am cashing in on yet again!

I'm not sure if anyone is still out there reading, and it is a bit crazy to think anyone would read my musings. Nevertheless, if you are there, here I am!

An Up and Down Kind of Week

This post is so difficult for me to write. I've had a lot of ups and downs in the past seven days, and I am still trying to process it all. Sorry for a downer, but I want to make sure to keep my blog real and write what I feel.

The "Big Creek" Owl Emblem 

This past week I was in Caretta, an unincorperated town in the southernmost county of West Virginia. You may be familiar with the area if you have seen the movie Rocketboys. The organization that I work for has a long-standing partnership with the nonprofit organization Big Creek People in Action. We had a great week working on 3 different families' roofs and had an even better time getting to know the people of Caretta and each other. I am sad since this was the last time I will get to work with most of my students before I go to graduate school.

Our six hour drive back to Kentucky was extended by another half hour or so when the HUGE Suburban that I was driving got a flat tire. It was definitely the worst flat tire I have ever had, but with the help of two of the great men on our trip, it was fixed.

:(

After I got home I really thought my vehicle troubles were over. D was at my house working on a grant proposal and I went to sleep. D woke me up around three to tell me the worst news I have had in a long time. Someone had vandalized my car.

I haven't told you all this, but last month I bought a brand new Honda Civic. I saved up a big portion of my pay check each month and worked hard to research what types of cars would be right for me. I felt sick when D told me this had happened and had to go directly outside to file a report with the police officer who was outside.

I found out that someone (who we could not identify or locate) broke a large vodka bottle and used it to put four long scratches on my car. They then took the potting soil from next to my back door and poured it all over my car.

I know it sounds cliche, but the damage to my feelings of safety and my mental health are much worse than the damage to my car. The scratches may even just buff out, and they are not even as deep as they could have been if the person/people had keyed my car.

I don't know who it could have been, and truthfully I believe it was a random act of people under the influence of some sort of substance. I have been contemplating moving to another type of campus housing for the last month of my employment here, but I may just stick it out and park my car elsewhere. It really scares me to be alone in my house, but I don't think it will be happening again and don't want to run from a problem when I don't need to.

Reflections on my First Year Post College

I graduated one year ago this Sunday. 

It is still so strange to think that I have not been a student for a year, but since I work for my alma mater, live in a college-provided house, eat meals in the dining hall, and have many of the same friends it is difficult to realize all of the changes that have occurred and at the same time how little has really changed in my life over the past 365 days. 

My big life changes were postponed a year, and they will start very soon. As a senior in college I wasn't sure "what I wanted to do with my life". I knew I wanted a family, wanted to be happy, and probably would want to continue crafting, reading a lot, and travelling. This year helped me really decide what I wanted out of my professional life. So I took the plunge and applied to graduate school. 

I was so nervous to turn in the application. The school was too competitive. The program lasted a long time. Maybe I was not ready to make such a big decision. Ultimately I applied but didn't expect to get in this year. But I did. So this fall I will be moving to Nashville to start graduate school in Sociology. I am incredibly excited and scared. 

I am ecstatic to have such a great opportunity and  already trying to figure out where to live, what I need, and how to pack up all of my things and decide what is worth taking. I can't wait to experience and share this new chapter in my life! I will be very sad to leave my college; it has been my home for five years, my treasured school, and my first "real" employer. I can't say enough good things about it, but I will miss it dearly.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful mom Rose. She has been a mother for 23 years as of tomorrow and actually became a mom on mother's day in 1989. I couldn't ask for a better or more supportive mom.

I hope all of you have a lovely day with your moms. I can't go home to see my mom this year, but I am so happy to be moving back to Nashville this July and am thrilled to get to spend more time with all of the members of my family!