New Years Resolution

With New Years coming up this week, I've decided that 2009 will be the year of goal completion, which should be accomplished with these four resolutions.

1. Pay off my credit cards.
2. Be a doctor by the time I'm 30 (which means having sat for my dissertation defense)
3. Reach my goal weight
4. Hang out more with people that make me happy. Hang out less with people that don't.

its the holidays

So its the winter holidays. I am actually very glad that the year is almost over. 2008 was a bit of a rough year and I am glad to see it end. 2009 I expect will be an incredible year. A lot has happened over the last two weeks.

Work is getting better. THey finally have me in the system i need at work to do my stuff, so I feel like I have a little bit of a purpose. The people I work with have started growing on me as well. I'm not sure if this will be a long term job or a short term job yet, but we shall see.

I started going to a personal trainer at the gym. I'm dedicated to dropping the remainder of the weight that I want to before I am thirty. So i signed up for personal training I have been twice now and he has kicked my arse. On Tuesday we did a lot of squats and lunges. My legs hurt like there is no tomorrow right now. Thank god the gym is not open today and i can take a day off.

In really horrible news, which most of my readers probably know from my facebook status updates. Last week, a friend of mine was murdered on his walk home from work (at 3 am) in DC. It broke my heart and I am still upset about it. I'm closer with the guys brother so I am sure that impacts me at all. It definitely took me out of commission for a while as I was in shock over it. So keep that in your prayers, if you pray that is.

I hope you all have a great Christmas, Chanukah, and Kwanzaa.

month anniversary

TOday was my one month anniversary on the new job. Its going well. It has been a slow month because it is a downtime in the office, but I've gotten tons of school work done because of it. Its interesting, more than the work aspect of it all, trying to join a new work culture. The culture around this office is soooo drastically different than the other office. This office is so incredibly friendly. Not to say that there weren't nice people at my last job, but these people go so far out of their way to be friendly. Every time they walk by they say hello; every day I have a full on conversation with each of my team mates. I'm just not used to that level of interest and friendliness with my coworkers.Also, this office is so holiday centric. They do Christmas cards and parties (like I've had three so far). People decorate their cubicles. Definitely not what I'm used to. But I'm excited to see the old me come back in all this, the outgoing happy me.

A number of people have said they can see the difference in me and I'm thrilled by that.

things are going well

So work is still going well. Its still a bit too slow for my liking. I haven't figured out if that is just the life of a federal employee, or if its because I'm new. I think over the next couple weeks additional things will happen to make sure I'm not bored. I haven't decided if the federal life will keep me happy for the rest of my life, so there is a strong possibility I will go into teaching once I finish my degree.

I've been able to make tons and tons of progress with my dissertation. The problem is with every step forward, I feel as if there is another mile to go. It never quite ends. But Rome wasn't built in a day, a dissertation isnt written in a sitting.

In good news, I found out that I will have the ability to do my data analysis from the comfort of my own computer. I had been told that I would have to go to Los Angeles for it. Which while i loved the possibility of a long trip to LA, it would have been way too expensive. I emailed them today and they gave me good news that they can send me the information I need. :) Woo Hoo. I may still go out there for a research workshop in August, but we will see about that.