Today was pretty tiring. I just need to de-brief and this is a good forum in which to allow myself that. First of all, I made a resolution this summer that I would actually spend time in my office this year and hopefully get to know people better. So, in the last couple of days, I've spent time there and think it will actually work out well. I've talked a lot to one of my colleagues, to whom I didn't really go past the everyday niceties with last year. It;s been nice. The only potential problem is that my fellow ta's seem to like to have music on...and I have the filtering abilities of a 5 year old, so that may cause some attention problems.

My marriage and family class is going to rock my face off. Today's lecture was just about the most eye-opening lecture on family that I've ever heard and it was just the introduction. It will be A LOT of work, but totally and completely worth it.

In other news, I spent about 45 minutes talking to a professor (the one who teaches family) who has been advising me in issues of marriage and family and research. He is pretty much my thesis chair, not because we've officially solidified that role, but because I think we've both assumed it all along. Anyway, I ran my ideas by him and while he thought they were really excellent, he pretty much said they aren't feasible for a thesis (for various methodological and time constraint reasons). We tossed around some related ideas. I'll be mulling them over during the next few days and then we have to come up with a plan for my independent study (which will hopefully produce the thesis). The good news is, he thought they would be amazing disseration topics. The other good news is that every time I talk to him, I feel more and more that our relationship is truly taking on the nature of colleague, not student/professor. He often says things to me like "I would never state this opinion in class, but..." and then make some kind of value/moral evaluation of a particular issue. I think he does this with me b/c he knows we pretty much agree, but that neither of us can be totally upfront with our valuations in the department. So, while the conversation left me feeling pretty bummed out regarding my thesis topic, it is always enjoyable to talk with him as a colleague.

Finally, I got an email just now from one of my students from last semester. It was so cute and totally made all of my disappointments better. Basically, she just wanted to tell me how sad she is that I won't be her TA anymore and she how my summer went. So, I think she wants to be my friend, and I think I'm going to go out of my way to facilitate that. She seems to be a great girl and we had a lot of really good talks last semester during my office hours. So, that was uplifting.

Nick - I owe you a post on cohabitation. Expect it soon.