Taking a break from the last round of edits to say...Yay for blog awards!

My regular readers know that life has been a bit crazy here recently.  I have been working on my EdD and this semester was (is) my last, which means that I had to finish my dissertation.  Easier said than done!  Let me just tell you that words cannot express how much I wanted to avoid this task.  I hear that is common at this stage in the process.  Common, but not useful.

Thankfully, one of the primary motivators was the fact that I actually edit dissertations and theses as a side gig to bring in a little extra money.  I enjoy editing, so that works.  Reading through the various dissertations also helped make me see that I could do this and I just needed to buckle down and get things done.  It was a good thing that I found my motivation because I learned at rather the last minute that I had ten fewer days to finish my dissertation than I thought.  Yikes!  I scrambled and got fewer than three hours' sleep each night for nearly a week and finished the draft for my committee.  Then I defended my dissertation to my committee.  Then I had more editing to do.  Plenty more editing to do.  By Friday morning.  Ugh.

But at least it's almost over!  And I decided to take a break on my last day of editing so that I could post a bit.  I miss being in BlogLand!  It's such a happier place than the Dissertation Dungeon of Despair.

Two lovely women who have made this week bearable are my lovely BlogFriends, Kelly at Blue Bird Sews and Jenna at Sew Happy Geek.  Kelly is someone that I imagine I'll probably run into in the real world because she, too, lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.  She has a talent for sewing and gardening -- she's shared some gardening tips with me (Thank you, Kelly!) and puts some quilting tutorials on her blog (yes!).  Jenna is an expat living in the UK and I love reading her posts.  She shares a lot of tips about sewing and she is always so excited about it that it's giving me the desire to get back into that craft.  I'm not skilled right now, so I'm starting small with a mug rug for the mug rug swap that Jenna is hosting.  These lovely ladies received blog awards and decided to share the love.  Thank you, ladies!!  You made my week much better. :-)

Kelly shared the Stylish Blogger award with me.

The way that this works is that when a person receives it she agrees to link back to the person who bestowed the award on her blog, then tells seven things about herself, and then bestows the award on other blogs.

I shared seven random things about me back in February, so now I need to think of a few more...(so difficult...brain on overload...must...have...coffee...!).

1. This year I will celebrate my ten year anniversary.  I was married at a young age, which I really don't condone now because I experienced how difficult it is to grow up when you have to be responsible for yourself and someone else.  Thankfully, we grew up together, rather than growing up and apart, and we've made it a decade.  I love my Honey! (But seriously, kids, do yourself a favor and wait until you're in your 30s to get married!)

2. Even when I was a an extremely conservative and sheltered fundamentalist when I was growing up, I still had a bit of the rebel about me.  I wanted green streaks in my hair (which never happened), multiple piercings (does a nose ring count?), tattoos (four and counting!).  I also refused to wear a white dress for my wedding.  Why should I do that just because it's tradition?  I had a midnight blue evening gown that was my grandmother's modified instead and I wore that...and loved it.

3. I was home schooled for most of my life back when it was really not cool and home schooled kids were ostracized as the weirdos.  Then I grew up and decided to become a public school teacher.

4. I feel guilty because I have a tattoo of a lotus flower that represents my love for my dog (among other things -- it also represents my life trying to make something beautiful grow out of a muddy and cruddy past, but my furry baby's name is Lotus so of course it represents her, too), but I have nothing to symbolize my love for my cats (Hero, who passed away, Canvas, Bunny, Nicky, and Nora).  I'm not sure what to do to fix that.

5. I used to think that I would want kids, or maybe just one kid, and that I would adopt.  The older I got the more and more I realized that I have no desire for children of my own.  Or rather I should say that all of my students became my de facto children.  And of course I have my Baby and my Little Baby, two much-younger brothers I cared for when they were infants.  Now the littlest one lives here as he works on finishing high school by taking college courses, and so I have a teenager in my house every day.  That's good.  I really don't want children of my own, even though people look at me as though I am some freak of nature with three heads and five arms when I say that.

6. I don't like surprises at all.  If someone threw me a surprise party I would probably get furious and walk out the door because surprises make me so uncomfortable.  My mother thought that she threw a surprise party for me when I turned 16, but since she had me make all the food to feed 40 people it wasn't really a surprise.

7. I love having large gatherings of people over to my house to eat.  We have a First Friday Family Dinner each month because I love fixing food for people.  But I do not like to entertain anyone or feel like I have to be responsible for people socializing.  Please, eat.  Talk amongst yourselves.  I'll flit in and out and see to food needs and laugh and drink, but I can't promise undivided attention.

So...was that random enough?

Jenna gave me the Liebster Blog award.

This award is meant to be given to blogs that have fewer than 300 followers.  My job is to choose three blogs, but how do I choose just three?  Oy vey, the dilemma!

First of all, I'd like to return the favor to my lovely BlogFriends, so Jenna, I'm bestowing Stylish Blogger on you, and Kelly, you get a Liebster Blog!

Now to find a few more blogs...you ladies shall receive both awards:

Jenny at An Apple for the Crafter has a lovely blog with great crafting ideas.  She used to be a public school teacher, too!

Katie at Eye Spy DIY has lovely ideas and great tutorials.  Check her out.  You won't be sorry...unless you're like me and have no time but seeing her tutorials make you want to drop everything and craft, in which case...at least you've been warned.

Congratulations, Ladies!  And thank you once again to Kelly and Jenna!

A blog award, a tired lady, and a nearly finished degree

Today I had my dissertation defense.  Yay and yikes.  As you probably know if you follow my blog, I work in education.  For a number of years I was a high school teacher and now I work in higher ed.  That means that I stand in front of people for a living and I talk.  So why is it that I am always nervous when I have to stand and talk in a new context?  I don't tend to much makeup on a regular basis (just mascara -- and my tattooed eyeliner, of course), but on days that I know I'll be speaking in front of people then I put on the works because I end up turning the color of a tomato.  Seriously.  I can't wear dress shirts because I am worried about perspiration and so I end up in blazers and nylons (also usually foreign to me) in an effort to mask my nervousness.

Today was no exception.  I spoke in front of my committee and I was nervous.  Nevermind that I edit theses and dissertations and know that mine is pretty decent.  Nevermind that I have known the members of my committee for a while and I actually work in the same building as they do (although I don't really work with them).  I was nervous.  And it turns out I had a right to be.  I was hoping that I would hear Well done, good and faithful servant, but I knew that was unlikely.  Instead I heard "Fix these things and get the updated draft in by Friday morning."  That overshadowed the more exciting part -- I'll be done by Friday -- with the more immediate notion of additional loss of sleep between now and then.  Oy. Vey. Seriously.

In the meantime I try to remind myself that this was a good response, that dissertations aren't meant to be the be-all-end-all in research, and that I just need to be done.

In slightly more positive news, my contract at my work has been extended through July.  Yay!  It still means that I will need a new job afterward, but I have a bit more breathing room while I look for something (which will prove difficult because as of today there were fewer than 50 jobs in education in this state -- at least 50 jobs for which I qualify -- and all but three are more than a 60 minute one-way drive -- and I qualify for a lot, so that should give you some indication of the state of things here).

In much more positive news, Kelly over at BlueBirdSews gave me a blogging award today!  YAYYYYY!!!!  Wasn't that so incredibly sweet?  It made my day and brought this sleep-deprived, brain-befuddled girl a bit of a smile and happiness.  If you haven't seen her blog you really must visit -- and now that I know that she lives in the Northwest and grows eggplant (which I've never been able to grow successfully), I am definitely going to bug her for her secrets!  She also makes the most wonderful quilting tutorials that are perfect for people like me who want to quilt but have no idea how.

I will respond with my good blogger duties and post the award and a bit about me and then pass it along...but not tonight.  Now it's time to head to bed.  At least it's not 4AM this time. :-)