Obturator, obturator. Foramen, can you hear me?

So, update on grad school - it pretty much rocks. It's hard - ooh boy, it's really hard and there are a lot of papers and reading, but I got to play with bones the other day in my osteology class and that really makes it all worth it. Now I am WAY out of practice, I haven't looked at a real bone - let alone mapped out the geographic points on it - in two years so there is quite a bit of review going on for me right now. But this is all still very awesome.

We have been learning the lower long bones - femur, tibia, fibula - as well as the pelvis and patella. We have also been going over techniques of siding - figuring out the left and right - as well as sexing them - and that's not what you think.

The other bone kid in my grad program showed me a pretty cool - and maybe slightly insensitive - way of siding the pelvic bones (called innominates or os coxa).

Think back to pictures you have seen of the pelvis, there is a notch about halfway down on each side. This is called the Greater Sciatic Notch...place your thumb there like you are picking the bone up (with your palm covering the socket where your femur connects). Now hold it like a phone. The crest of the bone should sweep upwards by your ear and the pubic ramis should angle down toward your mouth. It's not as gross as it sounds. Now, whichever side of your face the "phone" fits more naturally is the side of the body the bone belongs to.

The accompanying diagram of an innominate will give the less anatomy inclined an idea where the geographic points I have mentioned are located. Notice that if you picture the technique, the pictured bone is from the right side of the body.

The weather is starting to cool - it's that interesting mini-season that North Carolina has where the hot summer weather has finally broken, but its not quite chilly enough to be called fall. It feels a lot like springs in Wilmington.

And it's about that time of year, where senior undergrads and those just wanting to go to grad school are starting the application process and taking the unhappy GREs. Good Luck!...and what are you still doing on the internet? Go study! : )

Into my second week of school now and wow - so much reading...and just a lot work. I am at times incredibly excited and amazingly overwhelmed. And I can't quite shake the feeling that I am in way over my head on this one. Kind of a weird feeling since I am really good at the school thing - it's my bag - and yet, here I am worrying about if I am good enough to make it through this pretty intense program. It's a lot of classes in a pretty short amount of time and I am not really sure what my thesis topic will be and it seems like we already need to have a really good idea of what we want to study.

*Sigh* Anyone else feel this way? It will probably pass, I will turn in my first paper and it will be awesome and I will feel like I'm on the level with everyone else. But after being out of school for two years...I feel out of practice.

On the upside, had some good extended family time - we were celebrating the grandparents' belated 60th wedding anniversary. Pretty amazing, although I can't quite imagine spending that much time with one person. Not that I am a fan of jumping around - I have always been more of a penguin. And obviously marriage is a serious commitment, but after 60 years - you have been married for way longer than you were ever single. Pretty inspiring, since divorce is so prevalent and it happened to my family - made me pretty cynical about the whole love thing. But there is still hope, if both sets of my grandparents can stay married for 60 years - well, we will see about me.

Anyway, back to reading - got to get a little homework done before heading out to see Tropic Thunder tonight - looks like a pretty funny movie and hopefully it will live up to the hype.

Getting ready to start classes soon, whoohoo! Definitely a good thing since it feels like all I have done is sit around and continue to spend money with a little bit of unpacking sprinkled in here and there. Some of you will be proud to know I am finally throwing away boxes that I have kept for the past two years - they were broken down and put into the recycling the other day. There are a lot less to finish, but seems like I will never get everything unpacked. Oh well.

The town has been good so far, with the cool Carolina nights starting to set in. Hopefully, the days will get cooler, too - I've had enough of hot and humid from being in Florida where you could walk out the apt door at 7:30 in the morning and start sweating.

Driving on the interstate the other day, I saw a small herd of deer on the side of the highway, strung out along the hill. Nice to see deer again, didn't see any in Florida (which are about the size of a big dog from what I was told). These were your average NC deer - about 4 or 5 ft at the shoulder.

Spent time with the folks this weekend and got some puppy time in. I have never seen a German Shepherd as obsessed with a tennis ball as the parents' puppy is, always thought it was more of a lab thing.

Attaching another movie with this post. When I was in England my friend, who graciously shared her flat and showed me around, recorded a message for our friend who wasn't able to make it over. Enjoy! both of you - hope you like the music choice :) *Took down movie as it fulfilled its purpose : )*

I will be adding another movie of England highlights - hopefully minimizing the shakiness and increasing the interesting-ness. :)

Finally! Moved to North Carolina and getting the new apt set up for the start of grad school. Can't wait to meet the grad kids I will be studying with for the next few years.

I am missing Florida though. It feels weird not going to work everyday and I feel really slack just sitting around unpacking and spending money. It's like I am still on vacation and tomorrow I will wake up remembering that in a few days I will need to pack my suitcase and drive back to Gainesville.

Spent some time at the mom's house with the puppies and took some video. I am posting that as well, you all get to see my very first movie! Very exciting, but also keep in mind it is my first - so it is rough, plus it's not that exciting - but I figured some of you will enjoy the puppy time : )

Hope to have more interesting news for you all soon.

Four weeks until the big move. Looking forward to getting settled and getting school started. Just got to remind myself five months from now - this is what I wanted and worked two years for - go to remind myself to love the pain, stress, and hard work.

Silly Me...

So what's worse than waiting around to find out if you are accepted into grad school (and not getting accepted so having to go through the whole process of application three years in a row, by the way)?

What's worse is waiting to start school after you get accepted. 3 1/2 months and counting till the move to school, another 1/2 month till classes start. And I am excited.

I am not sure who will read this blog, random late-night internet surfers maybe...this can apply to a lot of stuff I guess, but my biggest challenge was getting into grad school...so those of you who are just starting the process or thinking about going to grad school - whether anthropology or something else - don't quit if you don't get in the first time.

Academics have always been my thing - I've had to work at it, but it's been what I'm good at - I even lettered in high school ;) So when I found out I didn't get into grad school my senior year of college I was shocked. What do you mean I am not good enough to be accepted?

So I got my stuff together and did some more research on schools and moved myself across the country and tried again. Granted I kind of hamstrung myself by only applying to one school the second time around. Yeah, no go the second time either. This time I was crushed. It sucked, a lot. I had a whole 'nother year to sit around and watch other people start school and graduate and I was slogging through a regular work day. I had a good job, this helped a lot...but it wasn't in my field or what I want as a career.

I also had the mental clock keeping track of where I should be in school...especially in comparison to my friends who did get into grad school. Nothing like some mental bullying to make you feel good about yourself.

So, I have gone through three separate application cycles and have applied to four schools (three were applied to twice). But I finally got in (I haven't stopped doing little happy dances and for the first few weeks I re-read the acceptance letter ever few days to remind myself it was real).

And the program I was accepted to will not only combine my undergraduate concentration in archaeology with my current interest in human skeletal anatomy, but will also move me back closer to some family and friends I have been missing. The thing is, this program is new - it wasn't around when I first started applying to schools. In fact, this coming school year will only be its second year in existence. Kind of crazy the way things work out.

So when you apply and your letters start coming back...congratulations on your acceptance!...but if it's the other kind of letter....stop and sit down and ask yourself 'how bad do you want it?' It took me forever to finally get accepted (and to make a decent score on the damn GRE), but I got in. And despite not really wanting to take a year off, let alone two....it's been a good two years of real world experience...even if one of the things I've learned is that I really want to be back in school. And I realized that I what I am wanting to do is really what I want to do. Not getting accepted was just an obstacle - not a decision. So don't stop.

Another shot at originality

So, another blog about some random person's life experiences. This particular one is to chronicle my time in grad school and beyond...and to add another virtual voice to the anthropology dialog. Interesting things will be posted, hopefully I will even write a few of them ; )