Dead Grandmothers

It's no secret that a student claiming a grandmother has perished close to midterms, finals, or the due date of a very large project has a high percentage of being made up.  Numerous people have written about this phenomena before; they're typically professors who have had the excuses given to them.  I happened to enter my college years with two grandmothers and graduate with none.  In fact, I had four close family deaths while I was in school but none of my professors questioned me when I said I was going to be out of town.  

My first grandmother died while I was a junior.  It was after midterms and rather sudden, but she was 96 years old.  The next grandmother died my senior year during a really busy time of the term.  Later that spring my surrogate mother for a summer passed away very unexpectedly and it was a rough couple of weeks.  And it was during my fifth year (year two of masters) that my cousin died.  Hers was the only funeral that I could not attend because it was short notice and during the middle of the week.  My professors never asked me for documentation (though I could have easily provided it) and were very kind to me during those rough patches.

One of my grandmothers and my cousin.

The reason I'm bringing this up?  Next week is finals week.  My boyfriend's grandmother has been in a very critical condition since last Saturday and it's not looking good.  My boyfriend and I have been together long enough where I've seen this grandmother practically every holiday.  While I'd love to think there is going to be a happy ending and his grandmother will get better, no one is holding out much hope.  I'm just hoping that if it is a sad ending these professors will be as understanding as the ones at my old school.

Anniversary

Today was my five year relationship anniversary with George. Thanks to Facebook and it's reminder system there was really no way for either of us to forget the date. In celebration of the big day (since it is in the middle of the week and all) we had a nice fancy dinner at home. George even got me roses! George is not a buy-you-flowers-randomly guy so this was a big deal.

A Dozen Beautiful Roses!

For the fancy dinner we stayed in and had a home cooked meal. But fancy! Ha. We had seared steak with caramelized onions and Gorgonzola, crushed red potatoes with buttermilk, and steamed asparagus. This meal was one I found on EatingWell.com's 500 calorie dinners and since George and I are trying to eat healthy this seemed like the perfect meal. It turned out really well too!

Mmmm...tasty.

We had a nice dinner together with angel food cake (plus strawberries and whipped cream) for dessert.

So here's to George. My number one fan. The only follower of this blog. My foundation.

The First Labor Day

Today I got to experience something akin to the First Thanksgiving...but from the view point of the Native Americans in the United States.

My research group held a BBQ along with many other research groups in the civil engineering & mechanics department. It was a good chance to get out of the lab, socialize (eek!), and meet other people in my department. The civil department (in an American university) does not contain many Americans. In fact, there were only three of us at the BBQ. The rest of the group was comprised of two from Denmark, three from South America, one from Africa, and many many people from China. Everyone was very excited to be having an American BBQ on Labor Day.

When I arrived one of my professors was setting up the grill. He recruited my reluctant boyfriend to man the grill and seemed as pleased as punch to be learning the art of grilling from an American. When it came time to cook one of the boys in my research group took over, gleefully wielding the tongs. While I was there it felt as though I was standing just off the coast of the Atlantic (in reality I was just off the shore of Lake Michigan) listening to the newcomers speaking (I can't understand anything in Chinese!) while sharing some age-old tradition (in this case, BBQ).

Truth to be told, I haven't attended many BBQs in my lifetime. More when I was younger but since I've gotten an electric grill I just haven't seen the need to drag out the bag of charcoal and toss on some lighter fluid to make dinner. What I really enjoyed from this BBQ was all the different food. Sure there was the typical meat & veggies on a stick, the Johnsonville Brats, pork chops, but there were also baby soybeans, noodles, and traditional Chinese desserts. I wish I knew what the desserts were called! Not quite as sweet as typical American (or European) desserts but light and tasty just the same.

Overall, I thought it was a very interesting experience and I'm pretty excited to experience more holidays with my research team.

No Sleep Till...

I'm up much later than I wanted to be tonight. Classes start tomorrow! In less than 12 hours I'll be in class actually. I had planned on going to bed around 10 or 10:30 at the latest and here I am, a full hour later than anticipated. Not a great start to the semester. I'm placing blame for up-late blues on anticipation and excitement. And also maybe on the fact that my boyfriend is watching MacGruber very loudly in the other room. He starts the term tomorrow too, but he does not suffer from the same anxiety as I do.

My kitten, which I suppose should be called a cat since she's three years old now, is very excited for school to begin. That means I will be home more! Someone will be around to play with her during the day and keep her company. She must be very pleased indeed. I can tell because she's been extra-cuddly all night and has currently curled her purring self into the space between my arms as my hands type away.

I should try to force myself to sleep. Shut down the computer, rest my head on a pillow and so forth. If only I hadn't left my binder full of papers to read in my research lab! That would probably put me to sleep in no time at all.