April is the Creulist Month

Sorry about the disappearing act - I was busy.

April started off busy, and just got busier.

I started the month off in Orlando, leaving on March 31 and staying for a week. I was there for a once every decade joint conference between the two largest professional organizations in my field, so while it could be condsidered a business trip I still made time for fun. We tried to spend as much time as we could at the pool of the timeshare one of my colleagues was able to score from her parents, went to Downtown Disney two nights we were there, and generally enjoyed ourselves and our time away from school and work.

Really, as much as it wasn't a vacation, it still felt like the first real vacation I've ever had. I didn't go with my family, I went with friends. The trip had all the major components - airfare, lodging, rental car, etc. that carry with them a certain level of feeling like a grown-up.

A good time was had by all. We didn't want to come back, because we knew that as soon as we got back we had 3 weeks left in the semester and then the process of closing out the residence halls for the year. As daunting as it seemed, it really ended up not being that bad. I basically had a final project in each of my three classes, but each was due in a different week. I focused on one, got it done, and then moved on to the next one.

At the same time, there were all sorts of other end of the year type celebrations and functions to attend and be a part of. For my efforts in advisng my student group I actually recieved the "Advisor of the Year" award, which as cheesy as it sounds really did mean a lot to know that my students appreciated my efforts and that I apparently did something right enough for everyone to notice.

Closing the residence halls down was actually not as bad as I had feared it would be. Make no mistake - I worked 14 hour days Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - but it was just a matter of plodding through things rather than some unyielding pressure or demand. My supervisor had things well organized and had the staff do as much as they could as far as getting paperwork ready and whatever else could be done before residents actually started moving out, so we kept things moving forward at a good pace.

For the most part as I look back no having finished my first year of graduate school, nothing was as bad as many people made it out to be. Either my cohort is just a lot better at what we do, or the cohort a year ahead of us is really not, or somewhere in between. Now we're just setting the bar higher for the new cohort coming in this fall.

Tomorrow morning I am off to Mexico for my two week study abroad trip. I'll be back for a week in between that trip and leaving for my summer internship in New York, so things show no sign of slowing down. I will try to share as much as I can of my Mexico trip when I return, but until then buenos noches...