I came home and promptly feel asleep for a long, delicious, 3 hour nap (and I'm still tired but anyway) during which I had an interesting dream.

Basically, I was at a research conference in LA, but had to stay at the hotel not my house, and at the conference I had to do data collection. On food that looked like volcanoes. More specifically, taco platters arranged to look like volcanoes.

And to make it even more weird, I was thrilled because the walls of the hotel were spread sheet cells and I could just enter the data onto the wall.

But yeah. Doing data collection in my dreams about taco volcanoes. And being excited about it.

  +    = I'm weird.

in a nut shell:

I came home from dc - after flight delays got back to the apt at 1:30am. Jon had already left for work.

Jon calls me at 4am that same morning, his car has broken down on the freeway. I drive to near LAX and meet him, deal with tow-age of the car and subsequent dealing with the car that day. Also, still sick from DC trip so stay home from work. This was Monday.

Mon-Wed we mess around with getting his car to various repair shops and act as a one-car family.

Thurs his car is out of the shop (still not 100% better), his parents arrived that morning from Philly (already planned trip). They deal with car stuff, Jon starts his new semester of classes that night, I go to lovely dinner with Jon's parents.

Friday we go around Santa Monica - show his parents The Victoria (wedding location), the Boarder Grill (rehearsal dinner location), and look at hotels to block rooms for guests and have the brunch (note to friends coming for the wedding - both hotels are on the beach - like the holiday inn - on the beach).

Saturday am (Happy 4th of July!) we drive to my parents, (me, Jon, his parents and the dog). Jon and his parents go look at car places in San Berdo (much better deals) find a car, deal with paperwork for car etc. That night we (me, Jon, his parents, my parents and my aunt) go to dinner at the Castaways (super awesome dinner) which is on a hill top and has a view of all of the San Bernardino Valley - so we see several fireworks displays over the two hour dinner. Nice night is had by all.

Sunday, we have brunch at IHOP, the guys (the two dads and Jon) go pick up the new car and trade in the Jeep (bye bye T3HJ33P) and the girls (the two moms and me) go for the alterations on my wedding dress (hello dress!). Then we all meet up at the house, Jon and I drive back to the car place to deal with some paperwork that was left there, we all sit around the house for a few hours talking wedding stuff, random stuff and being amused by the dog. Then Jon, his parents and I drive back to the Valley, drop off the dog, go get dinner, drop off the parents at the hotel and now. . . here I am back at the apt. And work tomorrow.

Jon's folks fly home tomorrow night but I should see them for dinner before they leave. It is really really awesome how well our families get along. Like our parents are all now totally BFFs.

And now I'm totally down for some internet/tv/walking the dog vegging out time and then bed.

and good night!

the workshop i taught went well i think. i received a lot of positive feedback from people in the group. all in all i ended up speaking for about an hour to about 30 people. illness-wise i can now swallow (score!) but am plugged and congested. towards the end my voice was starting to go but the moderator of my workshop was totally nice and got me some hot water mid-lecturing.

ran into old boss and the new coordinator (who has my old job) - old boss and i are probably going to grab coffee in the am - new coordinator and i will prob get dinner together tomorrow.

as for tonight - i did a quick walk through of the cocktail reception and said hi to a few people, grabbed some water bottles to take up to my room and now am planning a delicious night of tv/room service/pj/king size bed time. for reals. i think im going to go to bed around 10:30 and just sleep and sleep and sleep. i'm also excited to try the french onion soup on the menu. ahhh king size bed time is going to be amazing.

pre-flight doc's visit resulted in drugs! and orders to rest.

made it here - Jason and E made me matzo ball soup last night which did a world of good.

got to hotel this morning instead of doing conf stuff opted to sleep/go over notes for presentation which i'm about to go give in one hour.

so . . . cross your fingers (eyes, feet, ears, whatever) for me that i make through the workshop with out coughing a lung up, honking my nose too much and that my voice holds out!

later!

after dinner and laundry and packing and a bubble bath with a whole lotta eucalyptus oil thrown in and then some wakeful sleeping on three pillows - i'm more or less pack now.

plan is go to the docs first thing this morning (arriving 15 min before they open to ensure I get the first walk in) then go from there to the airport.

i'm taking tea, cough drops and tylenol and cold meds and claritan with me - failing drugs from the doc (which since i'm now coughing up green shit i think i'll get) i should be set. going to miss jon and olive - but jon is prob getting the best deal by not being exposed to me at my most sick (a whole airplane gets that instead) and not having to deal with me coughing or anything on him.

Good Thing: leave for DC tomorrow to be awesome presenting for AHRQ conference!

Bad Thing: Found awesome new article - need to totally change around my presentation and make copies today!

Good Thing: Pay day tomorrow! Stipend in DC!

Bad Thing: Someone stole my debit card number and made charges buying BART tickets in Northern California!

Good Thing: BofA is investigating looks like I'll get the money back.

Bad Thing: Had to shut off my debit card right before I fly.

Good Thing: BofA offers temp cards! They didn't do this while I worked there - works the same as a regular debit card. YAY! Access to money!

Bad Thing: Report I didn't think I had to work - totally have to work on it!

Good Thing: Hopefully will get done before I leave today!

Bad Thing: My throat is starting to get really really sore and I'm getting plugged up!

Good Thing: ummm... I have insurance now! Will go to a doc's I went to when I was in insurance limbo and try to get seen today!

Bad Thing: Need to get out of work by 5pm to get there in time! I don't think that's going to happen!

Good Thing: . . .  check back with me later!

see this? this right here? makes me very very excited in a very nerdy way.


http://www.cgu.edu/pages/6494.asp

Keynote Luncheons:
The 2009 Claremont Evaluation Debates
August 23 & 24, 2009
Claremont Graduate University
Major voices in the living history of Evaluation will go head-to-head on key issues to how the field is practiced today. Watch them online for free, or join us ringside in beautiful Claremont, California, this August during our Professional Development Workshop Series.

Sunday, August 23, 12:00-1:30 pm (Pacific)
Michael Quinn Patton vs. Michael Scriven
Utilization-Focused Evaluation: Its Promise (Patton) and Pitfalls (Scriven)

Monday, August 24, 12:00-1:30 pm (Pacific)
David Fetterman vs. Michael Scriven and Michael Quinn Patton
Empowerment Evaluation: Its Promise (Fetterman) and Pitfalls (Scriven & Patton)



yeah... asking work to attend workshop series.

I tried dancing to rap/top 40 music with Olive... she didn't like it. So I put my hat on her instead.





then she got sick of the game and went to sleep.

I have a little niece (to be?) -- Jon's sister had a little girl today - I believe the name they settled on is Victoria Hope.

for all you baby sitter's club book fans (yeah you know who you are)

go here:

http://whatclaudiawore.blogspot.com/

for example:

 

Saturday, March 28, 2009

#65: Stacey's Big Crush

This entire book was an exercise in secondhand embarrassment.

 

Jessi is feeling the secondhand embarrassment as well. If there was a thought bubble over her head, it would read "oh honey no." But Stacey is beyond help. She's wearing a green bow in her hair that matches her dress. She's probably had her hair recently re-permed. She's probably wearing Love's Baby Soft. All in all, she is a hot mess pining over a substitute math teacher who looks like a Ken doll and is following a white tie dress code at a damn middle school dance. Dude, seriously.

I can't help you, McGill, so let's move on.

"She's also one of the two fashion plates of the BSC. The other? Hrrrmph. Yours truly. Okay, I know it sounds snobbish, but all I'm saying is that Claud and I are the most clothes-crazy of the members. We like to follow new trends (and set them, if we can). Claudia likes experimenting more than I do, though. She can throw together the wildest hats and vests and shoes - stuff you wouldn't dream of wearing - and look sensational. She loves to wear her hair in different ways and is crazy about wild-colored barrettes."

It does sound snobbish, Stacey, it does. (See, it's funny because if Claudia had said that I'd be in complete (effusive) agreement. These are the jokes.)

"Then I thought of something extremely important. My clothes. [Validation! I knew thinking about my clothes was extremely important - thanks, A.M.M./Ghostwriters!] I had gone to class wearing an oldish pair of stretch pants and an oversized turquoise men's shirt. Not awful, but not spectacular. There was no way I'd make the same mistake the next day.

I rifled through my closet. One by one, I looked at my best outfits.

Long red gown? Too dressy. Stone-washed jeans (with a knit top)? Too [cobrasnake] casual. Paisley-print stirrup pants? Too faded.

I started the process at 4:35. By 5:05, I found myself staring at a short, rayon challis tank dress my mom had ordered for me. It was navy with white polka dots. The fitted top taped down to a flared skirt, with white buttons down the front. It was feminine, yet comfortable-looking. Absolutely perfect."

Stacey says that she can't wait to tell Claudia about her outfit. Claudia, being fairly practical, is like "Stacey, chill out, this is crazy talk." You can't help her either, Claudia.

"When I told her I was thinking of wearing thong sandals, Claudia suggested instead the new white sneakers I'd just bought, made of eyelet canvas with lace shoelaces.

'Ooh, good idea,' I said. 'Now, what scent does this outfit go with? Should I wear Lauren, or is that too, like, twentysomething?'

'I think it's fine,' Claudia said. 'But, uh, don't forget, Stace. This is a class. Wes is a teacher.'"

I'm not even sure I have it in me to continue with all the navel-gazing and pining Stacey does over the course of this book. It is absolutely hilarious to read from a - to quote Stacey - twentysomething perspective. I wish I could remember what I thought of it while reading it as a kid. Anyway, I'm resorting to a bulleted list, because the fashion (and quotes) just kept on comin' with this work of art.

• "From my secret psychological study of Wes, I had reached an important conclusion. He preferred dresses to slacks. So on Friday I wore a light, springlike sundress."
• "I vowed to myself that the next day, Friday, I would wear pants to school for the first time in two weeks. Who cared if Mr. Wesley Ellenburg liked dresses? Besides, how did I know how he felt about clothes, anyway? I had completely misjudged his feelings about me, hadn't I? By the next morning, I had begun to have second thoughts. Maybe I hadn't misjudged Wes's [sic] feelings. Sure, he was a twenty-two-year-old man, but that was still young. Everyone knows boys mature more slowly than girls. Maybe he was confused. Maybe he found it too hard to talk about feelings. Maybe he liked me so much he couldn't find the words to say so. I wore the polka-dotted tank dress to school that day."

Oh girl. I have a book for you.

• "It was Friday, a half hour before the Spring Dance. Mom and I had gone shopping at Bellair's after school. With her employee discount, she had been able to buy me one of the most beautiful dresses I had ever seen."
• " I stood in the bathroom and admired it. It was a calf-length silk/cotton dress with pastel floral print, a scoop neck, and a shirred skirt that was slit to above the knee on one side . . . Then I checked my makeup in the mirror, slipped on my bracelet and silver hoop earrings, and stepped into my flats. I pulled my hair back and fastened it with a ribbon. I was ready. 'Watch out, Wes,' I said to the stunning blonde in the mirror."
• "See you at the dance Friday night. Those words kept repeating in my head. He had said them to me. I know it was a harmless statement, but he didn't have to have said it. He could have said 'see you in class,' which had been what he usually said. But no. He had specifically mentioned the dance to me."
• what Jessi wore: "an indigo blue unitard [of fucking course] with a matching open-mesh oversized cardigan."

At the dance, Stacey makes an ass of herself, to put it plainly. She asks this poor man (god, he's three years younger than me) to dance to some slow song, and he tries to be polite and says that he's winded, maybe the next song. And she actually responds "the next one might not be so . . . slow."

I die.

So of course he has to awkwardly explain to her that 22 and 13 are more different than she thinks, he's a teacher, etc. Finally. But he totally creeps me out by starting off with "Stacey, you are a brilliant, talented, attractive girl . . ." Seriously, is that at all appropriate within the context of that conversation? I want this Miss Carr wannabe kicked out of Stoneybrook Middle School before someone gets pregnant.

And how glad are you that that stupid plotline is done with? And the equally stupid Eyes Wide Shut thing? And can we talk about the sheer homicial rage on Chuck's face at the end of Monday's episode*? That was pretty intense, huh? Would you say that it was more or less OH SNAP inducing than the "I killed someone" scene from All About My Brother?

* and how hot is that Home Video song

?**
** and how much do I love asterisks?

 

Not too much going on - but here's a bit of the low down:

- work is going well. i'm on some interesting projects but at the moment i'm mostly working on budget reports (tres awesome let me tell you).

- need to finish reviewing abstracts for a conf (i was asked to help select how would be presenting) by june 12.

- need to work on/finish workshop i'm teaching at the AHRQ research conf - also by june 12. but hey, DC trip at the end of the month.

- they replaced some pipes in my apt ... three weeks ago now? it was supposed to be a quick process but in reality was a long pain in the ass. there were huge cut outs from walls in both bathrooms, my closet (i had to move all my stuff to the office), the hall closet and the living room wall. now they're supposedly finishing the dry wall and painting but i'll believe it when i see it. really, i just want to move my stuff back into my closet because i'm living out of bins at the moment. at least the holes are more or less closed off so Olive will stop trying climb in them/eat dry wall.

- saw jason. good stuff. yay jason.

- summer plans: in-laws coming out for a few days over 4th of july. vegas-tastic trip planned over my birthday weekend (end of july) - me, jon, rachel, taleisha, ben, and lenny. good stuff.

- wedding planning coming along. save the date cards came in so those will be mailed soon.

- i think i'll go to the library later today - i need something new to read. also will try for gym trip this evening.

- i had been asked to pick up some extra hours helping with a research study in the ER at the hospital my office is located near. turns out i can't because they'd have to pay me at an over-time hourly rate which is too expensive. nice that income bracket is up but i'm bummed because i was thinking of it like - "oohhh working there for a few months = nice wedding cake."

- places i want to go soon-ish: the dog friendly beach in malibu (if weather goes back to summer from the rain/ick we have now); the fashion district downtown (never been); the jewelry district downtown (never been); an art museum(MOMA? Getty?); another pug meet up.

Must get Eval Methods for PBR lecture done asap for AHRQ conf!!!!

translation:
am teaching lecture/giving workshop at AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) PBR (Practice Based Research) conference on using evaluation research methodology (specifically empowerment evaluation, utilization-focused evaluation and goal free evaluation) within practice based research network contexts.

err - here's the abstract:


Evaluation and PBRNs: Utilizing Evaluation Methodologies for Practice Based Research

This workshop will introduce concepts and strategies found within program evaluation and participants will learn basic steps to completing an evaluation. Three specific evaluation methodologies, Empowerment Evaluation, Utilization-Focused Evaluation and Goal Free Evaluation, will be taught to workshop participants. Empowerment Evaluation, pioneered by David Fetterman, promotes the equal inclusion of all stakeholders in the design, conduct and use of a program evaluation. Utilization-Focused Evaluation, pioneered by Michael Quinn Patton, is conducted with the understanding that program evaluations should be judged by their actual use and that evaluation procedures, from start to finish, impact utilization for stakeholders. Goal Free Evaluation, pioneered by Michael Scriven, avoids learning the stated purpose or goals of a program prior to and during the evaluation and instead has the evaluator make program observations, conduct interviews and make measurements of progress in a goal free environment. Participant groups will be asked to design an evaluation plan demonstrating one of the three above evaluation methodologies based on a scenario from a PBRN. Workshop participants will also be asked to discuss how they can introduce concepts from evaluation into their own PBRN research. Resources on program evaluation be provided.


Workshop participants will be split into three groups (or more depending on the number of attendees) and asked to design an evaluation plan based on one of three evaluation methodologies for a “PBRN case study.” Participants will also be asked to discuss ways of integrating evaluation methodology into their current research studies. Participants will be encouraged to ask questions at any point during the workshop.

ok... so i really really liked glee :-D

kinda reminded me of highschool a little...

Me (at dinner): oh did you notice my hair?
Jon: *looks at hair* umm? *gives me a look that says my hair is in fact still on my head*
Me: I changed it.
Jon: um... ok.
Me: I changed to a center part from one on the side.
Jon: ... ... your hair always looks nice. :-D
Me: it's different.
Jon: ... your hair always looks nice!

awesome awesome awesome!

i laughed, i cried, i cheered, i raised an eyebrow at trek nerds with mullets in uniforms at the theatre....

and kirk? captain sexy pants.
bones? dr. sexy pants.
sulu? asian sexy pants.





it was really, really good. special effects were fun, it was written so that people who didn't know star trek could get it and there were some inside jokes for those who do know star trek.

so - go see it!

Black Culture and the New Deal: The Quest for Civil Rights in the Roosevelt Era

link