1. 9 credit hours of classes (including Foundations of Criminal Justice, Teaching Sociology, Classical Sociological Theory)
2. Teaching Assistant for Race and Ethnicity
3. Research Assistant for research on Bangalashi women
4. Graduate and Professional Student Council sociology representative
5. Secretary/Treasurer of GA United (GAU, the grad assistant union)
6. Illinois Education Association (IEA, the state-wide union GAU is affliated with) Higher Education Council member
7. Organizing a legislative platform for GAU and local lobbying efforts
8. Finishing my thesis on adult female video game players (seriously, if I haven’t talked to you yet about this and you want to do an interview, leave me a message)

…whoops.

Also, I slipped a disc in my back about two weeks ago. Which was fun. Physical therapy two times a week and prescription drugs. Go me.

What else is going on? Not much. What about you guys?

The RA was awesome and awe-inspiring. I’m not sure I have the brain power at the moment to really sum it up and talk about it the way I’d like to. The days were long, yesterday especially, and I was up at 3AM so I could make my 6:40AM flight out of D.C. But I will say that it was an honor and a privilege to participate in the world’s largest parliamentary body. I was able to help chart the course for my union, speak at the Illinois caucus, put in to speak on the RA floor (but they called debate before I had a chance to speak, damnit!), see Obama speak, suggest a new resolution for next year, and despite the 10-12 hour working days, the early mornings, the insane prices of food in D.C., the beds that made my back hurt, I’m energized about unionism and ready to get started. There’s a lot to do this year and I’m super-excited to be part of that. (See, you can tell how tired I am when I’m resorting to words like ’super-excited’.)

Mostly so I can keep it straight myself, here’s a list of places I’m going to be through August:

June 30-July 7: Washington, DC
July 30-August 4: Boston, MA (with a trip on the 31st to MIT)
August 29-31: Seattle, WA

And I think I’m missing one in there somewhere.

It is the end of the semester. I have one of my seminar papers done, and am in good standing with finishing the other. Unfortunately, I sort of have to hold off on it, as it’s a quantitative paper, and we’re not learning the techniques I’m using until the last week of class. I can pick it up fast, but statistics and (quantitative) research methods are really something I have to be taught, I can’t just learn it by reading about them.

What else?

My gender and sport class is still torture. Earlier this month we actually made the instructor cry. So, instead of paying any attention at all, I’ve been writing bits and pieces in class. Maybe I’ll get around to typing it all up.

So, that’s really all I’ve got; except for the fact I’m on campus and really just… have no motivation to get work done. Not a whole lot of work to get done.

Intellectually, I know there’s nothing to worry about.

But, man, feeling these aftershocks while I’m in my office. On the top floor (4th) of a building. Creepy. It makes my heart jump every time.