Smelling like a sheep

Recently my grandmother gave me a beautiful hand-knit Irish wool sweater. She'd had it custom made years ago and it doesn't fit her any more, but it fits me perfectly. It looks a lot like this one:


Well, I put it on the other day and noticed myself having an allergic reaction - sneezing, itchy, red eyes. When I took the sweater off, I wasn't sneezing and felt a lot better. So I decided today that it probably needed to be washed because it had been sitting for a while with no one using it. I'm still not sure if that will fix the allergy issue, but I did learn something about nice quality wool - it STINKS when you wash it! It smells like a wet sheep is hanging out in the laundry room and that's AFTER washing it in Woolite. I did some research on it, and it seems to have something to do with the natural lanolin that's on wool. Lanolin is great for repelling water and dirt, but it really does stink.

Let's hope it smells better when it dries out. It's a really pretty and warm sweater and I want to be able to wear it without having to take an allergy pill first!

Extreme Pig Out...

...that was the title of a show I was just watching on the Travel Channel as I ate some of the massive slice of chocolate peanut butter layer cake that Paul and I took home from Gregg's last night (if you've ever been to Gregg's for dessert, you know they are very very generous with their cake slices!). Thankfully they were showing skinny teenagers trying to eat 7 pound burgers, so it didn't turn me off from the cake (does that mean I've completely re-acclimated to the American lifestyle?). Anyway, Gregg's cakes are one of the things I miss when I'm away from the Rhode Island area. That and Del's frozen lemonade.

But there are definitely new things to look forward to with regard to "extreme pig outs". Like Steak N' Shake, a burger and milkshake restaurant that's open 24 hours. Their claim to fame is that they use steak in their burgers, as opposed to other chain fast food burger joints that supposedly use lesser quality beef. Either way, it's tasty. And then there's Bruster's ice cream, which Paul introduced me to on our recent trip to Bloomington, and I am now a card-carrying member of their "sweet rewards" club so I can get a free ice cream cone after I buy 9. And I'm sure I'll get there.

I'm also fascinated by farms. There are some farms in and around Seekonk, but not nearly on the scale of what you've got in the midwest. I think grain elevators are really neat, and I love seeing tractors and combines in action. In Bloomington, I'm hoping to take full advantage of the weekly community farmers market and if we can, we might be signing up for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) plan where you pay to get a share of each week's crops, kind of like the vegetable box scheme we signed up for in Oxford. I've got a lot to learn about our new home state, that's for sure! And I think even Paul will be experiencing a lot of new things since he's going back to his college town as a grown and married man.

Well, we've got a lot to figure out in the next few months, but at least most of our stuff is packed (and has been for nearly 2 years!), so getting there won't be much of a hassle!

I love dogs, but not inconsiderate dog owners

Today was one of the most beautiful days we've had all year. Temperatures were up in the 60s and it was sunny and gorgeous. So, taking advantage of the weather, Paul and I went rollerblading on a new bike path in Pawtucket, called the Ten Mile River Greenway. It's actually just 2.5 miles long, and while I was looking up that statistic, I also discovered that it cost a whopping $3 million to built it! http://www.earmarks.omb.gov/authorization_earmarks/earmark_189619.html (in case you're interested). Of course that immediately makes me think of the stimulus package that was just passed, but I'll refrain from further comment right now as this isn't really meant to be a political blog. Anyway, the bike path runs along the reservoir that separates Seekonk and Pawtucket, and I had no idea how beautiful a place it was until we first went there a few weeks ago.

So there we were rollerblading on the path and since it's Sunday and gorgeous, there were lots of kids and dogs all over the place. It was a fun little trip from one end of the path to the other, but on the return trip we went past a family walking a cute and friendly springer spaniel. Only the dog was so friendly that it darted across the path and tried to come up to me, and since its owner had its nearly invisible leash extended about 10 feet, I had to swerve off the path, tumbling twice into the mossy ground. I'm fine except for a few scratches on my back, and Paul said I did a good tuck-and-roll (thank goodness for my wrist guards) so I'm happy I didn't break anything. I gave the woman a good and loud lecture about keeping a short leash on the path, so hopefully there won't be more incidents. It stinks how there can be 30 people responsibly walking dogs on a bike path and one person ruins it. Luckily I like dogs, but I could imagine if it'd been someone else, they could have been seriously hurt and could cause a ban on dogs on the path.

Our visit to Bloomington

This past weekend we took a trip out to Bloomington to accomplish two things. One, for me to meet a bunch of professors and students who I'll be working with for the next few years, and two, to find a place to live for the summer. It seems both worked out really well!

We stayed in Bloomington from Thursday to Monday. Paul's friend Nicole was generous enough to host us while we were there, and give us the run-down on the town. Apparently in the last few years since Paul graduated from IU Bloomington has grown a lot. They've increased the number of undergrads and there's been a lot of students coming from NY and NJ, sparking vast construction of condos and "New York style" apartments. Needless to say, there is a huge selection of housing options. We decided it'd be best to go for a summer sub-let so we can get (re)familiarized with the town, and figure out where we want to live more permanently. Houses are ridiculously cheap compared to what you get in Massachusetts, so we are basically cutting our expected housing budget in half or more.

We wound up finding a summer sub-let on the east side of town. It's fully furnished, includes a washer and dryer, dishwasher, central air, and best of all, we can get a puppy! I think the puppy idea is what I'm most excited about right now. A lot of you probably know I grew up with 2 golden retrievers, Lisa and Disa, and I do miss them. They were wonderful dogs, so friendly and always happy to see anyone. Having a dog really brings a special kind of joy into your life. I think you don't really understand it unless you have had a dog. So we're looking at adopting a golden retriever puppy once we find a reputable breeder. We'll probably look at the pound too, but it's hard to find purebred golden puppies.

As for my program and the people in it, I am really blessed to have found such a great group of people to be working with over the next few years. Since a bunch of prospective grad students were visiting, the graduate secretary set up 15-30 minute meetings for each of us with different professors. I was amazed that professors who I thought I had nothing in common with actually do have research interests that overlap with mine. It's so reassuring, because while there are probably 2 or 3 professors I see as the best "fit" for me, I really appreciate having input from different perspectives and I know I'll have that at IU.

As for pictures, we didn't take a whole lot, but here's what the campus looks like from inside the Sample Gates (named for an alum).

From Bloomington March 2009

And here's what you get in the countryside just outside the town. Beautiful, isn't it? I'm so looking forward to this fantastic combination of college town and country roads!:

From Bloomington March 2009

Academia and Opposing Views

Lately I've been reading a graduate message board on the internet where applicants and current graduate school students can discuss the admissions process, funding and other issues. Today I read something that made me want to comment on my blog.

One person posted a question about whether they should go to a school if they have severe differences in political opinions from the faculty there. The overwhelming majority of responses were that it's better to be around people like yourself to discuss ideas you agree on.

That kind of attitude is definitely NOT what I'm looking for in a PhD program, especially in the social sciences. I remember once in an undergrad course on globalization when the topic of global warming came up. I mentioned that some scientists contested the global warming theory in favor of a theory that the world naturally goes through temperature cycles, like the ice ages. The class quickly dismissed those scientists as "ignorant" and erupted into shouts and anger, so I declined to contribute further to that discussion, but it made me realize that conflicting ideas can be squashed out of higher education. Is that really academic discourse?

Anyway, that's one of the reasons I wanted to go to a larger program. It's still only 12-15 students per year, but some programs take 1 or 2 students every couple of years. I know that I will have strong disagreements with some of the faculty (and students, for that matter), but that can only make me better informed about issues I care about. The problem comes when people take it personally and start name-calling or crying or whatever. It's great to have ideas batted around, and I enjoy that part.

Hopefully I won't have to deal with too many whiners, name-callers or holier-than-thou types. Unfortunately for those types, they're going to have to deal with me calling them out and making sure they really know what they're talking about. I most certainly don't want my cohort to be anything less than the best they can be.

FINALLY some BIG NEWS!

After months of pretty dismal job hunting, we just found out today that I've been accepted to Indiana University, Bloomington to do a PhD in Sociology! We are just thrilled to have this opportunity, and even more thrilled that I'm getting funding to do it! Now Paul just needs to find a job out there, so if you know of anywhere around Bloomington, Indiana that's hiring MBA's, let us know!

My focus is going to be in medical sociology, which probably a lot of you who follow our blog aren't all that familiar with. Some examples of the kinds of topics I want to research include issues surrounding how people access medical care (what makes someone decide to visit a doctor? would national health care change that?), what happens once someone is diagnosed with a disease or condition, and how policies affect access to medical care and treatment decisions - and probably lots of other topics. More specifically, I've been concerned about the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on treatment, especially with regard to mental health. After living in the UK for a year, where direct-to-consumer marketing of pharmaceuticals is prohibited, and moving back to the US, where every other commercial is for some drug, I was reminded of the great extent to which pharmaceutical marketing is a part of everyday life for Americans.

I am so excited and thankful to be given this opportunity, and I know it sounds trite, but I honestly do hope to make a difference in the world with my work and I think that will be possible with this experience.

Snowy Wintery Weather

I was going to write about the snowfalls we've been having by making a comparison to the Eskimos and their 9 words for snow, but apparently according to wikipedia.org and several other sources, that's not true. Either way, we've been having some interesting weather. Just before Christmas, we had nearly a foot of snow fall, which is when we made that cool snowman. Well, that snow melted away and then we got another snowstorm on New Year's eve, resulting in about 6 inches of snow. That snow started to melt, and then we got a nasty sleety rainy slushy storm that left a thick icy glaze over the remaining snow. So now we've got a crunchy, glossy layer of snow carpeting the area, so thick that I can actually walk across parts of it without leaving a footprint. It's actually kind of pretty when the sun is shining and it shimmers, or at night when the moon reflects off it. We're due for another 4-8 inches of snow tonight, so that will make things interesting - thick snow over an icy crust. Could be trouble!

But thinking about this, and getting back to the Eskimo thing, it would be neat if we had more words to describe the snow. I guess we call it "powder" when it's a dry snow, and maybe "packed powder" when it's a little squished on a ski slope. But then, I don't really have a word for the kind of snow that's perfect for making snowballs. Then there's the "dusting" you get sometimes that doesn't stay. And this icy snow with a glossy finish, I have no idea what to call that.

It's been a few years since Paul or I lived somewhere where it both snowed and we had a yard to look out onto. Sure, Chicago snowed, but in the city it quickly turns brown and slushy. And it snowed once during our time in England, but actually we were in Poland at the time so we missed it. Now we've got the time (LOTS of time!) to look out the window and see the pretty snow. And who knows, maybe tomorrow we'll get another shot at sledding!