I can't help but wonder (yes, another Betty post)

• If Matt just ended up taking a job from his father, doesn't that render the whole YETI thing pointless? Someone else probably lost that spot to him.
• Do editors (directors, etc.) really take their assistants to awards ceremonies and let them dress up and sit there rather than hurry around the lobby fielding calls?
• Why didn't Marc just go to that Vogue job?
  
• Really, when you think about it, Betty's done a lot more in her time as assistant than Marc. She orchestrated a number of big deal events for Mode and Player, and wrote articles for Mode, Hot Flash and whatever that one was that Salma Hayek ran. What has Marc done other than cover for Wilhelmina?
• I feel like Betty also has a hard time getting a clue. She's been told more than once that sometimes you have to sacrifice your personal life to get ahead. So why does she whine that no one at work respects her when she blows off important work things? And why doesn't she look to Claire as an ally?
• And why didn't she just have Daniel come with her rather than stay at home with him? He might have been able to help.
  
• Wilhelmina banging her shoe on the UN podium a la Khrushchev - totally predictable, but totally necessary. I'm surprised Betty didn't get more of a punishment for her shoot going so badly.
• I'm also surprised that Hilda and Justin can get into the building so easily. They just wander in randomly - don't most big office buildings have you sign in at the front desk?
• The whole thing with Wilhelmina's daughter is going to get interesting, I think.
  

I don't feel sorry for Kate Gosselin

I was browsing through IMDb when I came across some trivia about Jon & Kate Plus 8. I know this is supposed to make you feel like, "Wow, it's a lot of work to have 8 kids," but none of these statistics seem particularly shocking. For example:

Altogether the family can eat up to two full boxes of cereal a day.

Umm, just wait until you have teenage boys, Kate. We have to hide the cereal in my house because my 16-year-old brother could polish off a box in a day, and still whine that he's hungry a few hours later.

The Gosselins average 2-3 loads of laundry per day.

Two loads of laundry? Whoa, Kate! I don't know how you find the time to do all of your other stuff, like sit on the driveway and whine about how you're completely alone and so exhausted but you're happy to have Jenna the "helper" there, who's not a babysitter, she just likes to come over and play with your kids. We easily average 2-3 loads per day, given that some days we don't do any and some days we might do 5 or 6.

In my parents' generation, everyone had 5+ kids. My dad had a neighbor who had 13 kids. And while you say it's not the same as having sextuplets, it's not exactly easy when you've got seven kids who are less than ten years apart. And they all made it out just fine.

Stop whining, Kate.

Year 5 at HogwartsOxford

Whodathunk, when I signed up for this deal, that I'd be staying on for five years? I sure didn't. Well, here I am, back in Oxford for the fifth time around, and for the fourth and hopefully final year of my doctorate (*knocks on all available nearby wood*).

I'm ready to buckle down and finish this thing. I can't wait to have a job. But I also can't wait to see what year 5 has in store - hopefully more travel, as I haven't done nearly enough since I've been here, and meeting even more interesting people.

I had my Confirmation of Status exam on Thursday (the second major assessment before the final defense), and it seemed to go well. They had a lot of concerns as usual, but I'd rather they tell me these things now than wait until I'm done.

The term officially starts about two weeks from now, but I had to get here early for the aforementioned exam. For the first time ever, I arrived at night in Terminal 4, so I booked a room at the Yotel in the terminal so I wouldn't have to worry about potentially missing the last train/bus if the plane arrived late! If you haven't heard of it before, the Yotel is a "capsule" hotel modeled on the Japanese capsule hotels and the type of amenities you'd find in first class. The rooms are teeny (actually, they're not terrible if you book a premium room, but I couldn't afford that), and they overlap so alternating rooms have a lower or upper bed. There are no closets, just a single hanger for hanging suits and a rack for storing luggage. I couldn't use the fold-down desk because my luggage was in the way, and the bathroom was pretty much a long narrow shower with a sink and toilet all in one. The room was about the length of the bed, that's it. But it was a fun experience, the room service was good and the people were nice, and I felt a bit more relaxed than I would have if I had gone straight to Oxford the night before.

In addition to the usual academic work, the start of term brings the usual Junior Deaning tasks: coordinating talks, meeting freshers and the like. The next few weeks are going to be very busy!

Hopefully I'll get some time to post a bit more this year, and I hope everyone's term is going well. xxx

Eight Years Later

I could say something about 9/11 today, but so many people said it much more eloquently already, so I'll share a post about the day that I thought was very moving. Head on over to jo(e)'s page and read about her sister's memorial of the day.

"Señor de los espacios infinitos, tú que tienes la paz entre las manos, derrámala Señor te lo suplico, y enséñales a amar a mis hermanos..." (A. Sanz, "Todo es de color")

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Gosh, it's been ages since I've posted here. I can't really say it's due to lack of time, but perhaps lack of motivation for composing long and thoughtful posts. But I'm sure most of you have been keeping up with the Flickr and the Twitter and the Facebook, and if that's too much for you to check, you can catch it all (including this post!) at the Tumblr.

So anyway. You probably want to know what I've been doing all this time. As tomorrow is the First Day of School for the young'uns in my family, I thought I'd present you with that timeless Back-To-School composition theme, What I Did On My Summer Vacation.

First and foremost, I watched people get married. In June I went to San Francisco to see Chrissie and Collin tie the knot:

This was a wonderful experience for many reasons. First, I got to go back to San Francisco, which was great fun. (I went there last year for the first time.) I also got to reconnect with many old friends from my first two years of Oxford, as well as meet some cool new people. If finances can withstand it, I'd love to make a yearly trip to San Francisco.

In July, my cousin Ryan got married:

Ryan's new wife is Trish, and they met when Ryan was living in Boston. The really cool thing about their wedding is that Ryan designed a lot of things for it: the invitations and save the dates, the programs, the place cards and table numbers, and even the favors - hand-illustrated cookbooks of their favorite recipes. Unfortunately, their weather was crap (as was expected - it rained 90% of the time this summer), but the location was beautiful and we all had a great time.

And in August, longtime family friend Amanda married Bryan on my mother's birthday:

Amanda was exceptionally lucky to have gorgeous weather, especially since she had her wedding outdoors on a lovely mountainside, which led to some fabulous photos.

And my wedding attendance schedule was on the light side this summer: my parents also attended my cousin Emmy's wedding the week before my cousin Ryan's wedding, and my sister Kelly is attending roughly 837 additional weddings between now and November.

When we were not attending weddings, we attended wedding-related events, such as bachelorette parties (that's "hen nights" to all you Brits out there)...

...rehearsal dinners...

...and Jack-and-Jill showers. Whew!

(The couple for this one was Casey and Paul. Casey has been Kelly's best friend since middle school. She's getting married in October, and alas, I cannot go.)

Again, my wedding-related event schedule was only the tip of the iceberg. My parents and my sister will be attending weddings pretty much every single weekend in October. But even so, I now declare myself the official expert on weddings and can advise on pretty much any aspect of wedding planning. If this whole doctorate thing doesn't work out, I know I'll still have a career. ;)

When I wasn't attending weddings, I was teaching faculty at the University of Hartford how to use Blackboard.

(This is a very old and very bad picture of me, but I was doing the same job two years ago. I don't have any photos of me doing the job this summer...)

The university upgraded its version of Blackboard this summer, so I spent my time in FCLD doing what I usually do with them: developing and updating documentation, testing new features, and training faculty. I absolutely love educational technology and hope I can continue with it in some way once I'm done with my doctorate.

What's up next? Lots of work this year. I'm looking to finish about a year from now, so it requires lots and lots of work. If all goes well *knock on wood*, I'll submit in July and defend in Octoberish, and make my way towards the real working world. I can't wait. :D

Wishing you all, whether you're tenured faculty or sending your kids off to preschool, a happy and productive back to school season - Kx