Student SPHere 2008-09

I used to like snow. In fact, I used to love snow. As a child, I remember the thrill of waking up to the glistening white glory of a night’s snowfall. On particularly lucky days, school would be cancelled, and I could spend the day making snow forts with my friends. We would then barrage each others’ brains out with a deluge of snowballs and spend the afternoon recovering with a well-earned snack of homemade hot cocoa (with peppermint, of course) and cinnamon bread. However, on the 21st of December, as my husband and I inched our way out of the Minnesotan abyss amidst the billowing swirls of a foggy mass of snow, I decided that perhaps snow is not that great. It was not at that point even snowing anymore, but our precarious predicament was created by the unfortunate combination of powdery snow, high winds, and the fact that southern Minnesota is as flat as month-old soda. We luckily successfully escaped Minnesota, and eleven hours later, found ourselves safely at my dad’s house where we were to spend the holiday.
We spent most of the week in a flurry of friend and family. One of the biggest highlights for my husband was the charity concert he put on for Heifer International. It was the first benefit concert that he had ever organized, but despite a few kinks, it went splendidly. We also were able to attend the wedding of a friend of mine from high school. We had been really close in high school, and she ended up attending West Point, where she met her husband. We stayed close in college since I was able to visit her quite a bit when I was at NYU, and after her plebe year, she was able to come to the City to see me. Her wedding was beautiful, of course, and I couldn’t be happier for her. The only low point was when my husband decided that we needed to dance at the reception. Now, my husband is a musician. He has this thing called “rhythm.� He also has “coordination.� I, however, was not blessed with either of these gifts. Instead, when I dance, I look like a wounded ostrich flailing helplessly in painful spasms. Needless to say, the videographer was more than happy to capture my pathetic arrhythmic stylings on camera because apparently that level of jackassery needs to be preserved forever.
On returning to the land of 10,000 lakes (and 10,000,000,000 mosquitoes), we had the pleasure of having my mom visit for a few days. I utilized the fact that her trip coincided with the post-holiday sale at J. Crew to procure several sweaters that I had been coveting. We also have successfully finished the research papers (on college athletes and their drinking habits) we had been working on together, and will be submitting them to journals for publication shortly!! On a sadder note, we also attended the Vikings/Eagles game at the Metrodome, where my husband’s dreams were dashed to pieces at the hands of Donovan McNabb. I guess there’s always next season. All in all, I had a great time with my mom, and I’m really glad I got to see both of my parents during the break.
Now, I am preparing for next semester. I’ll be taking the second part of the stat theory class (8102) and clinical trials, which is a required course for biostats. I’m also going to be taking an intro to Bayes class, and I’m really excited about getting to take it. I’m a little apprehensive, just because I will have to learn WinBugs and be much better at R than I am currently, but I’m confident that as long as I can swallow my pride and ask for help when I need it (which in my case is easier said than done), I will have a successful semester.