I guess it's time to say some stuff since it's been forever.  I guess it's also easy to give you an update since I basically just said everything in a comment to a Xanga-friend... well, I don't know if you're still Xanga-friends if you haven't commented to each other in forever, but it's not that I get to talk to my other friends much anyway.  Just the ones that I run into on a daily basis.  Anyway... life has been crazy and here is a short (or not so short) update.

I was supposed to graduate this semester, but I found out this past Thursday that it wasn't going to happen.  I am planning to defend in early May... well, I better since I'm starting a full time job May 12th, and it better all be done by them or I'm really going to be pissed!! 

Full-time job:  I've been working at a place in Indianapolis part-time this semester doing bridge engineering, and I've been really enjoying it!!  So I'm staying there permanently, while Husband is still in school at Purdue.  It's like when I do work there, it actually means something, and that feels really good since I haven't felt like that in a long time.  So that has been a blessing... like I feel like I'm on vacation when I'm there compared to my actual research crap... and I'm actually doing a lot of work while I'm there.  But then there are many changes that will be occurring and many discussions with Husband about it all.  For instance:  we will be moving closer to Indy (I drive 1 hr & 20 min. one way to get to work now) in July and we haven't decided where that will be yet; we have 2 cars (11 and 13 years old) that will need to be upgraded eventually and we haven't decided who's car will be first and how we are going to do that; and that the answers to both decisions depends on the other decision... etc. It'll all work out in time.

I guess when I finally get everything done I'll have more time to post on Xanga.  Then maybe I'll catch everyone up on all the school crap that's been going on... or maybe not.  I just kinda stopped sharing and talking about all the crap since early January... and now recently have been able to talk about it.  That "timing" is directly related to the fact that my husband was up in Minnesota cause research sent him there in early January, and he's been back now for 2 weeks.  I was only able to see him once, cause research doesn't pay to send him back occasionally, so we had to buy a  plane ticket.  ... I guess that's been the main crappy thing.  I feel bad "wining" about that cause I know there are others out there who've gone through a longer "living far away from significant other."  So I'm sorry for your situations and I now understand better what it's like.  These are my feelings (and my blog ) and it's been the main thing on my mind and my main feeling in my heart all the time while he was away.  It was just really hard to talk about it to anyone who didn't know already   It will be better the next times he goes up there for several reasons, like that he got the full "per deum" (sp?, or whatever it is that people get refunded for when the travel for work), so we will definitely buy MANY more plane tickets and me working full time means we will have more money to spend on plane tickets so it should be a happier experience.  He'll be up there for 6 more months over the course of the next year and a half.

Ok, I better get some work done if I'm going to graduate when I want to graduate!!!  Hope all of you are doing well

P.S. - To sum up the end of last semester when I was TAing in the Math Department:  It SUCKED. 
1)  I tried so hard to be a good TA (it took all my time),
2)  felt underappreciated for my efforts most of the time from the students cause nothing was ever good enough, and
3)  I hated not really "teaching" cause it was such a perscribed position (just going over homework) that I wasn't really comfortable doing it "their" way and couldn't do it my way cause I was being watched like a hawk by the person that hires/fires Math TAs and told us this perscribed way of doing things so we would all be doing the same thing... nothing was ever good enough for her either.
-- I'm not the only one that felt this way.  I think we all felt this way (well, the friends I meet while doing this).

General feeling of about being a grad student:  I'm over it.  It's all such crap.