The wedding went perfectly. The weather was gorgeous (80 degrees with blue skies and no humidity), everyone showed up on-time, fully awake, dressed and in good spirits. We had had some problems in the previous days with getting suits pressed at the last minute, arranging ties and vests, so I was a little on edge about something really stupid going wrong.
In fact, something really stupid did go wrong: the day before Scientist was about to head out to Iowa for wedding he burst a blood vessel in his left hand while lifting weights. Of course, his hand turned red and swelled up all cartoon-like. The one finger he needed--his ring finger--remained too swollen for me to fit his ring on it during the ceremony, so I had to make due with sliding the ring down to his first knuckle. I tried not interpret this as a bad omen, but rather some messed up coincidence. I guess this will be one of those funny stories we'll tell our child/children (along with the story about how mommy and daddy slept on the floor of a shitty apartment for 10 weeks while the government messed around with paperwork, delaying the delivery of their furniture--HA!).
It's funny, I got increasingly more and more nervous as the morning wore on (we got married at noon), but once my father and I were standing behind the doors of the entrance of the church about to go in, I suddenly relaxed. During the ceremony, as far as I was concerned, the only people there were Scientist, myself and the minister (who sweated profusely throughout the ceremony).
There were two times I had to hold myself back from crying--once while Scientist was reading his vows to me, and then while I was reading my vows to him. I had been really nervous about sounding like a sappy idiot, but I ended up creating vows that were both simple and meaningful without being ridiculously corny.
Afterward, we took pictures (which I'll post as soon as I have, but, from what I've seen, are absolutely gorgeous), and then had a small luncheon. Ice Cream Man gave a nice toast in which he ripped on Scientist and, my honor attendant, Brian, gave his own toast to love in Russian. They were both beautiful (thank you Brian for not telling terribly embarrassing stories about me involving ridiculous amounts of vodka).
When we were originally planning the wedding, Scientist and I decided we wanted to combine both the formal and informal. Obviously the ceremony and luncheon were the 'formal' part. The pig roast we had later on that evening, while maybe a little nontraditional, was an opportunity to really talk spend time with our guests. One thing we kept hearing over and over again while we were planning was "You'll be so busy you won't have an opportunity to talk to anyone," which totally would have been true, had we not had the pig roast. I feel like I really got to spend time with my dad, who I only see once a year (he lives in rural China), and some friends I rarely see because we live so far from Iowa City.
In a week we will leave on our honeymoon to Italy and Croatia. If you're jealous that's okay--I would be too, if I weren't so ridiculously happy to be going on this trip myself. I promise to post pictures of both the wedding and the honeymoon once we get back.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
A Simple Wedding
After Scientist first asked me to marry him last year, I promised myself that I would not a) have a complicated wedding and b) become one of those women (or one half of one of those couples) who expects people to spend a lot of money/time/energy on my wedding. So far, I've been successful at avoiding both of the things I feared.....or so I thought.
Having a low maintenance wedding and being a low maintenance bride is extremely difficult. Scientist and I are having only one person each in our wedding parties--both of whom, incidentally, are men (my friend Brian, who put up with me throughout my rough Peace Corps service, is my 'honor attendant', and Scientist's childhood friend, Ice Cream Man, is his best man). We're getting married at noon, not in the late afternoon or evening. We're not having a band or giving our guests little mementos of our wedding which would eventually end up gathering dust in someone's cupboard for the next several decades.
And yet, I am overwhelmed with crap to do for the next 2 1/2 weeks I'm back in Iowa. I have to meet with hair stylists because my stylist backed out on me after I made an appointment right after we got engaged (very professional--she's not getting my business or my mom's business any more, no matter how long we've known her), make-up people, the florist, the caterers.....I'm astounded at how complicated my 50 person wedding has gotten. I shiver to think at what would have happened had I not bitten the bullet and hired a wedding planner to help me plan all this. Grad school, work and planning an out-of-town wedding would have driven me crazy and we would have eloped, I'm sure of it. In fact, eloping doesn't sound like to bad of an idea right now.
Having a low maintenance wedding and being a low maintenance bride is extremely difficult. Scientist and I are having only one person each in our wedding parties--both of whom, incidentally, are men (my friend Brian, who put up with me throughout my rough Peace Corps service, is my 'honor attendant', and Scientist's childhood friend, Ice Cream Man, is his best man). We're getting married at noon, not in the late afternoon or evening. We're not having a band or giving our guests little mementos of our wedding which would eventually end up gathering dust in someone's cupboard for the next several decades.
And yet, I am overwhelmed with crap to do for the next 2 1/2 weeks I'm back in Iowa. I have to meet with hair stylists because my stylist backed out on me after I made an appointment right after we got engaged (very professional--she's not getting my business or my mom's business any more, no matter how long we've known her), make-up people, the florist, the caterers.....I'm astounded at how complicated my 50 person wedding has gotten. I shiver to think at what would have happened had I not bitten the bullet and hired a wedding planner to help me plan all this. Grad school, work and planning an out-of-town wedding would have driven me crazy and we would have eloped, I'm sure of it. In fact, eloping doesn't sound like to bad of an idea right now.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Reservations '08
I've been debating whether or not to write about some of my feelings regarding the campaign since my gal Hilary (as I like to call her) dropped out of the presidential race. See, I was, and still am, one of those pesky, middle class, educated white women who just isn't sure whether or not she should vote for Obama. I used to be ashamed to admit that, but after a couple of different conversations I had recently I realize I'm really not alone in my feelings, and I'm now willing to "out" myself as a fence sitter.
Had you told me back in January that I would feel torn between voting for Obama, voting for McCain, or not voting at all I would have laughed. However, after some of the things that were said in May and June regarding Hillary and her bid for the presidency by my fellow Obama supporting, Democratic comrades, I'm having a hard time throwing my support fully behind Mr. Obama. The sad thing is, only 50% of the reason why I'm not fully behind the Democratic nominee is for political reasons--the other 50% is because I strongly dislike a small but very vocal group of his supporters.
Here's a great quote from a Salon article that pretty much sums up how I feel about the campaign, and especially how I feel about the aforementioned group of Obama's supporters.
"Clinton behaved with the kind of naked drive and aggression and mercilessness we revere in, for example, football greats, wrestling stars and military heroes. Her political ambition and ruthlessness are qualities native to anyone putting themselves up for the job of running the country. That includes Barack Obama, who is an inspiring leader I fervently hope will be our next president, but who is not, despite what some of his supporters seem to believe, built entirely of altruism and hope and, I don't know, puppies. "
I know that once November comes I will, truth be told, vote for Obama. I have serious problems with the whole Obama-as-Messiah picture that the New York Times, MSNBC, and a small faction of his followers have created, but I can't not vote for him on the obnoxiousness of his media image alone. I reservations about his readiness to take on his position, as well as his evasiveness regarding a whole host of issues (health care and the war specifically), but I am too much in disagreement with McCain on issues like health care and abortion to vote for him. That and I'm still unwilling to give up on my party, no matter how much I dislike the arrogance of our canidate and his fanatical followers.
Had you told me back in January that I would feel torn between voting for Obama, voting for McCain, or not voting at all I would have laughed. However, after some of the things that were said in May and June regarding Hillary and her bid for the presidency by my fellow Obama supporting, Democratic comrades, I'm having a hard time throwing my support fully behind Mr. Obama. The sad thing is, only 50% of the reason why I'm not fully behind the Democratic nominee is for political reasons--the other 50% is because I strongly dislike a small but very vocal group of his supporters.
Here's a great quote from a Salon article that pretty much sums up how I feel about the campaign, and especially how I feel about the aforementioned group of Obama's supporters.
"Clinton behaved with the kind of naked drive and aggression and mercilessness we revere in, for example, football greats, wrestling stars and military heroes. Her political ambition and ruthlessness are qualities native to anyone putting themselves up for the job of running the country. That includes Barack Obama, who is an inspiring leader I fervently hope will be our next president, but who is not, despite what some of his supporters seem to believe, built entirely of altruism and hope and, I don't know, puppies. "
I know that once November comes I will, truth be told, vote for Obama. I have serious problems with the whole Obama-as-Messiah picture that the New York Times, MSNBC, and a small faction of his followers have created, but I can't not vote for him on the obnoxiousness of his media image alone. I reservations about his readiness to take on his position, as well as his evasiveness regarding a whole host of issues (health care and the war specifically), but I am too much in disagreement with McCain on issues like health care and abortion to vote for him. That and I'm still unwilling to give up on my party, no matter how much I dislike the arrogance of our canidate and his fanatical followers.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
I've been debating whether or not to write about some of my feelings regarding the campaign since my gal Hilary (as I like to call her) dropped out of the presidential race. See, I was, and still am, one of those pesky, middle class, educated white women who just isn't sure whether or not she should vote for Obama. I used to be ashamed to admit that, but after a couple of different conversations I had last week I realize I'm really not alone in my feelings, I'm willing to "out" myself as a fence sitter.
Had you told me back in January that I would feel torn between voting for Obama, voting for McCain, or not voting at all I would have laughed heartily. But honestly, after some of the things that were said last month regarding Hillary and her candidacy by my fellow Obama supporting Democratic comrades, I'm having a hard time throwing my support fully behind Mr. Obama. The sad thing is, only 50% of the reason why I'm not fully behind the Democratic nominee is for policy reasons--the other 50% is because I strongly dislike a small but very vocal group of his supporters.
Here's a great quote from a Salon article that pretty much sums up how I feel about the campaign, and especially how I feel about the aforementioned group of Obama's supporters.
"Clinton behaved with the kind of naked drive and aggression and mercilessness we revere in, for example, football greats, wrestling stars and military heroes. Her political ambition and ruthlessness are qualities native to anyone putting themselves up for the job of running the country. That includes Barack Obama, who is an inspiring leader I fervently hope will be our next president, but who is not, despite what some of his supporters seem to believe, built entirely of altruism and hope and, I don't know, puppies. One of the great things about our history of ambivalence and resentment toward Clinton was the almost sweet relief we could take in knowing from the start that her raw will to power was going to grate on and enrage us."
I know that once November comes I will, truth be told, vote for Obama. I have serious problems with the whole Obama-as-Messiah picture that the New York Times, MSNBC, and a small faction of his followers have created, but I can't not vote for him on the obnoxiousness of his media image alone. I reservations about his readiness to take on his position, as well as his evasiveness regarding a whole host of issues (health care and the war specifically), but I am too much in disagreement with McCain on issues like health care and abortion to vote for him.
Had you told me back in January that I would feel torn between voting for Obama, voting for McCain, or not voting at all I would have laughed heartily. But honestly, after some of the things that were said last month regarding Hillary and her candidacy by my fellow Obama supporting Democratic comrades, I'm having a hard time throwing my support fully behind Mr. Obama. The sad thing is, only 50% of the reason why I'm not fully behind the Democratic nominee is for policy reasons--the other 50% is because I strongly dislike a small but very vocal group of his supporters.
Here's a great quote from a Salon article that pretty much sums up how I feel about the campaign, and especially how I feel about the aforementioned group of Obama's supporters.
"Clinton behaved with the kind of naked drive and aggression and mercilessness we revere in, for example, football greats, wrestling stars and military heroes. Her political ambition and ruthlessness are qualities native to anyone putting themselves up for the job of running the country. That includes Barack Obama, who is an inspiring leader I fervently hope will be our next president, but who is not, despite what some of his supporters seem to believe, built entirely of altruism and hope and, I don't know, puppies. One of the great things about our history of ambivalence and resentment toward Clinton was the almost sweet relief we could take in knowing from the start that her raw will to power was going to grate on and enrage us."
I know that once November comes I will, truth be told, vote for Obama. I have serious problems with the whole Obama-as-Messiah picture that the New York Times, MSNBC, and a small faction of his followers have created, but I can't not vote for him on the obnoxiousness of his media image alone. I reservations about his readiness to take on his position, as well as his evasiveness regarding a whole host of issues (health care and the war specifically), but I am too much in disagreement with McCain on issues like health care and abortion to vote for him.
Friday, June 06, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
The West Virginia Way
Over the past few months I've had a quite a few things I've wanted to write about: being a bride, buying a house for the first time, academia, the election. But recently there's been some things going down here in Morgantown, and at WVU in particular, that have distracted both me and everyone else in Morgantown, becoming all that anyone can talk about.
Last fall, the Pittsburgh Gazette wrote a piece on a former WVU grad, Heather Bresch, after one of their staff writers discovered that Bresch, an employee at Mylan Pharmaceuticals, had lied about a degree she had earned from WVU. Bresch was set to be promoted to high ranking executive position in the company, and in the course of investigating her credentials, the Pittsburgh paper uncovered that not have the academic credentials she claimed to have. Apparently, when the Pittsburgh paper called WVU to check to see if she had earned the aforementioned undergraduate and MBA degrees, they discovered that while she had begun her MBA degree here and completed roughly a year's worth of classes, she never actually completed the program.
Now, that wouldn't be such a huge deal--people have lied on applications about degrees and skills and jobs they've had since applications were invented--except just a few days after the Pittsburgh paper discovered that Heather Bresch didn't have the MBA degree she claimed to have she was suddenly, magically, retroactively awarded the very degree in question from WVU--nine years after she claimed to have graduated.
Who is Heather Bresch and why does she matter? Why, she's the governor's daughter! She got her degree the old fashioned way--she called Mike Garrison, the president of WVU and made sure that she was awarded that MBA degree she always wanted but only completed 26 academic hours out of 48 academic hours for.
Bresch and Garrison go way back. They were both in the same "graduating class" at WVU (she was in the School of Business and he was at the WVU law school), plus Bresch employed Garrison as a lobbyist when she worked for a firm in Charleston. When Garrison was appointed president of WVU by the Board of Governors it was widely (and correctly) believed that Garrison was just another crony of Bresch's father, Joe Manchin III.
Like Manchin, Garrison has conviently surrounded himself with people who will either protect him or take the fall. The Board of Governors, who appointed Garrison, are also the only the people who can "fire" him. Not surprisingly, the BOG is made up of people who Garrison knows from his past--one of them he practiced law with years ago. Garrison, like a true blue West Virginia crony, has managed to appoint people who have helped him along the to positions of power within in WVU: the dean of the medical school (for which the Public Health department is a part of) was someone Garrison had known for years and replaced a man who was forced out by Garrison after heading the department for 15+ years.
Garrison claims to have no knowledge or involvement in Bresch's mysterious diploma, as does her father, Governor Manchin. However, Garrison admits that he did receive a phone call from Bresch who said she "sincerely believed" she had earned her MBA. Instead of handling this matter himself, however, Garrison said he handed it off to Provost Lang and the Dean of the College of Business, Gerald Sears, who months later, as this whole thing unfolded, suddenly resigned (but who still teach at WVU and will rake in over $200,000 per year).
Garrison thinks, apparently, that he can pt his head down, ignore the outrage that has infected the campus and ride this out until the next year. Fortunately though, the faculty, staff and some of the students have signed petitions and held two seperate meetings in which they expressed their own sincere desire that Garrison get his ass kicked out of office. At the most recent meeting, over 600 faculty and staff met and voted 565-39 in favor of asking Garrison to resign.
This type of scandal doesn't just affect the president's office, BOG and the governor; it tarnishes the reputation of the school, chases off current and potential faculty and students and creates a backlash in which everyone walks around looking over their shoulders wondering if someone is going to accuse them of something. Furthermore, it makes people like myself who have worked their asses off towards their degree look bad. As another graduate student in Public Health told me: "I think about all the hours I spent working towards my degree, writing my thesis, doing my homework, going to class....time I spent away from my family...and someone like Heather Bresch can just make a phone call and suddenly be awarded an MBA."
The Bresch/Garrison scandal also perpetuates the image of West Virginia and West Virgininans as clanish and backwards, which is terribly unfortunate because of it overshadows all the good things about West Virginia and Morgantown in particuliar. People here are incredibly nice. The landscape is breathtaking. I know without a doubt I've received a far better education here than I would've at U of Iowa due to the well trained (and sometimes unbelievably demanding) . But how anyone know that? Your average person associates West Virginia with Hatfields and McCoy type feuds, coal mining and corruption, all of which are certainly a part of West Virginia history but really betray some of the lovely things about WV. Scandals like this also distract attention away from problems that really affect West Virginians like ridiculously high rates of obesity, smoking, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and poverty.
But don't take my word for it: read about a recent grad's opinion of what he thinks the university's presidents next move should be. Football fans should also take a look at this article with Rich Rodriguez, whose sudden departure seems a lot clearer given what we know about how Garrison operates.
Last fall, the Pittsburgh Gazette wrote a piece on a former WVU grad, Heather Bresch, after one of their staff writers discovered that Bresch, an employee at Mylan Pharmaceuticals, had lied about a degree she had earned from WVU. Bresch was set to be promoted to high ranking executive position in the company, and in the course of investigating her credentials, the Pittsburgh paper uncovered that not have the academic credentials she claimed to have. Apparently, when the Pittsburgh paper called WVU to check to see if she had earned the aforementioned undergraduate and MBA degrees, they discovered that while she had begun her MBA degree here and completed roughly a year's worth of classes, she never actually completed the program.
Now, that wouldn't be such a huge deal--people have lied on applications about degrees and skills and jobs they've had since applications were invented--except just a few days after the Pittsburgh paper discovered that Heather Bresch didn't have the MBA degree she claimed to have she was suddenly, magically, retroactively awarded the very degree in question from WVU--nine years after she claimed to have graduated.
Who is Heather Bresch and why does she matter? Why, she's the governor's daughter! She got her degree the old fashioned way--she called Mike Garrison, the president of WVU and made sure that she was awarded that MBA degree she always wanted but only completed 26 academic hours out of 48 academic hours for.
Bresch and Garrison go way back. They were both in the same "graduating class" at WVU (she was in the School of Business and he was at the WVU law school), plus Bresch employed Garrison as a lobbyist when she worked for a firm in Charleston. When Garrison was appointed president of WVU by the Board of Governors it was widely (and correctly) believed that Garrison was just another crony of Bresch's father, Joe Manchin III.
Like Manchin, Garrison has conviently surrounded himself with people who will either protect him or take the fall. The Board of Governors, who appointed Garrison, are also the only the people who can "fire" him. Not surprisingly, the BOG is made up of people who Garrison knows from his past--one of them he practiced law with years ago. Garrison, like a true blue West Virginia crony, has managed to appoint people who have helped him along the to positions of power within in WVU: the dean of the medical school (for which the Public Health department is a part of) was someone Garrison had known for years and replaced a man who was forced out by Garrison after heading the department for 15+ years.
Garrison claims to have no knowledge or involvement in Bresch's mysterious diploma, as does her father, Governor Manchin. However, Garrison admits that he did receive a phone call from Bresch who said she "sincerely believed" she had earned her MBA. Instead of handling this matter himself, however, Garrison said he handed it off to Provost Lang and the Dean of the College of Business, Gerald Sears, who months later, as this whole thing unfolded, suddenly resigned (but who still teach at WVU and will rake in over $200,000 per year).
Garrison thinks, apparently, that he can pt his head down, ignore the outrage that has infected the campus and ride this out until the next year. Fortunately though, the faculty, staff and some of the students have signed petitions and held two seperate meetings in which they expressed their own sincere desire that Garrison get his ass kicked out of office. At the most recent meeting, over 600 faculty and staff met and voted 565-39 in favor of asking Garrison to resign.
This type of scandal doesn't just affect the president's office, BOG and the governor; it tarnishes the reputation of the school, chases off current and potential faculty and students and creates a backlash in which everyone walks around looking over their shoulders wondering if someone is going to accuse them of something. Furthermore, it makes people like myself who have worked their asses off towards their degree look bad. As another graduate student in Public Health told me: "I think about all the hours I spent working towards my degree, writing my thesis, doing my homework, going to class....time I spent away from my family...and someone like Heather Bresch can just make a phone call and suddenly be awarded an MBA."
The Bresch/Garrison scandal also perpetuates the image of West Virginia and West Virgininans as clanish and backwards, which is terribly unfortunate because of it overshadows all the good things about West Virginia and Morgantown in particuliar. People here are incredibly nice. The landscape is breathtaking. I know without a doubt I've received a far better education here than I would've at U of Iowa due to the well trained (and sometimes unbelievably demanding) . But how anyone know that? Your average person associates West Virginia with Hatfields and McCoy type feuds, coal mining and corruption, all of which are certainly a part of West Virginia history but really betray some of the lovely things about WV. Scandals like this also distract attention away from problems that really affect West Virginians like ridiculously high rates of obesity, smoking, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and poverty.
But don't take my word for it: read about a recent grad's opinion of what he thinks the university's presidents next move should be. Football fans should also take a look at this article with Rich Rodriguez, whose sudden departure seems a lot clearer given what we know about how Garrison operates.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Resurfacing
Believe it or not, not everything here in Morgantown is sunshine and rainbows.It's been a rough semester to say the least. The amount of reading and writing I've done over the past few months has far surpassed any other semester. In fact, I doubt if I've done this much writing since I started graduate school. Don't get me wrong--I love to write, but being forced to constantly produce something in the form of a brilliant and lengthy paper on a regular basis gets old.
However, I have learned a few things over the course of the last few months. Here's a list:
1. Sometimes you don't get the grade you deserve. Even if you put your heart and soul into it.
2. When number 1 happens, get upset, bitch to your significant other and then get the hell over it.
3. Academics love to hear themselves talk.
4. Just because you're a physician doesn't mean a) you like people or b) you have any social skills.
5. Research begets more research.
6. Public health can be as ivory tower as any other discipline.
7. Ph.D. students are not necessarily smarter than MPH students no matter what big wigs in the department think.
8. No matter how many times the aforementioned Big Wig asks me to consider applying to the Ph.D. program the answer is still NO! NO! NO!
I have two days left of school, a three day weekend and then I start my practicum. I hope to start updating this site more often once I get settled into a routine.
Hopefully, I'll even be able to post more pictures of our little home soon!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Our House
We're homeowners!
We hadn't planned on looking for a house, but, honestly we decided back in January that we were sick of living like graduate students (remember, I'm the only one who is still a grad student and this is, in essence, my last semester of school) so we decided to look for a place.
We had thought it would take us a while to find something, but we found something right away. The current owner is a total jerk and has been difficult to deal with, but other than that the whole home buying process has gone well. It's unnerving to sign your life away to the bank though--even with a low interest rate you still end up paying almost twice the price of the house over the course of thirty year loan.
I feel so adult. I'm super excited. It will be nice to own something and make the home ours. We move in the May 15th. More pictures will follow, for sure.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Blah
I really should be working on some homework, but since I'm not completely bogged down in journal articles, assigned readings and papers to write, I thought I'd take this opportunity to actually update y'all with what's been going on here in Morgantown.
This semester started off with a bang. It seemed like within a week I had an huge amount of work to complete and no time. Thankfully, it looks like things won't be quite so bad; I'll have periods of insanity--like the entire month of April, for example--but otherwise, if I stay on top of things I should be okay.
My job with Santa hasn't really gone anywhere yet, unfortunately. We're waiting for a bunch of epidemiological data from a state agency, who for a variety of reasons I won't get into here, hasn't handed over the data. As a result, in my five weeks of work thus far nothing has happened. I haven't written anything. I haven't analyzed anything. Nothing. I have however, gotten a LOT of homework done and gotten paid for it while I supposed to be working, so I guess I can't complain too much.
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