Time Out

It seems to me that people, at least those people who have blogs that I read, so mostly people in my immediate family, are posting a lot less frequently. I don't know what it is, but this seems to be the year of lack of time for the Novak clan. Between school and marriage and work, I don't really have a lot of time, or energy. Energy is the big one, because there are times (to which Eric and some others who I complain to can attest) when I'm bored out of my mind and I don't want to play cribbage or scrabble for the six hundreth time, or watch that movie that will put me at a million and two movies watched in the past month. But I hardly seem to have the energy when I finally catch a break from life so that all I really can seem to do is play stupid computer games or play that game of scrabble or watch yet another movie. By the way, I've seen some pretty interesting ones, and some pretty bad ones. And it seems like when I do have energy, I'm too busy doing something "important" to be able to enjoy it. Still, most of my classes are great, my senior honors project is going well, although I still haven't turned in that IRB application...hopefully Thursday if I can get my advisor to sign it tomorrow...and my job is great, if not a tad boring itself. Seriously, it doesn't take much to scan paper into a computer over and over again. And it takes barely more than that to find the right label for it and index it. But it's a good job, at a good company, pays well, and I work with cool people, so hopefully it will last me until the end of the year (right now I'm only guaranteed until December 28th)!

Anyway, back to the point of the blog (wait, there wasn't really a point I just fel bad about not posting in awhile)-I've noticed that not a lot of people have been updating their blogs that often, and I completely understand, yet at the same time am disappointed. I like reading people's blogs, and for me it's an easy way, and sometimes the only way, to catch up on what's going on in everybody's lives. So I hope people start posting more, if only for me. Either that, or send me emails or call me so I have something to take up my time somehow...not that I have that much of it anyway!

You want a prediction about the weather, you're asking the wrong Phil. I'll give you a winter prediction: It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life.

Bored

This rarely happens. I'm sitting at home, on a school night, and I'm bored. I've already watched a movie, done some homework, avoided some homework, played computer games, and just basically relaxed. I could be doing homework but it would all be working ahead, so I don't really need to. It's nice to have a night off, but Eric is at work so I'm all alone, which means now that I've exhausted all the things I could do by myself, I'm pretty bored. I've hardly seen Eric all week anyway-either one of us has been at work, or one or both of us has been in class, so we've been so busy and mostly away from each other all week. So while it's nice to have some time to myself, it's sad that I can't spend it with Eric.

School has been going well, I'm doing amazing in all of my classes, which, while good grades are not anything new for me, is really great because some of my papers and tests have gotten perfects, so that's really awesome and I'm really proud of myself, especially with the amount of work I've been doing this semester, and most of it outside of my classes on my senior honors project. Which I feel like I'm falling behind on, oddly enough, since it's all on my own time. But I need to turn in my IRB application, and I'm basically ready, I just have to have my committee members review my survey because once I turn it in to the IRB, that's what I'm using. Plus, I still have a book to get through for my research, so while I'm technically done with all the research I have to do (since my survey is built off of my research) I still need to get this done because it will be helpful for the actual explanatory/descriptive part of my paper. It's a book on JP II's theology of the body, actually by one of the foremost experts in that area, so it's cool. Let's see if anybody can guess who it is. I also have had my project discussed with another famous Catholic theologian who I'm using in my work, Janet Smith; one of my advisors knows her and she was in town the other day, so they talked about my project and apparantly she was really excited about it. Her work is really helpful though, and I'm hopefully going to be getting a tape of a talk or something that she put out on contraception too.

Other than school, and my new job that I can't really talk about because almost everything I do is confidential in some way (well, I scan and index personnel files, so that's my job but I can't talk about the files at all), nothing is really interesting with me. Married life is good, except for the parts where we're having a hard time figuring out when to spend time together. We're not a very exciting couple, and we haven't really been seeing any friends or family lately which makes me sad. Except we did have my friend Megan come over for dinner last week, but other than that I feel like we're big losers. So, if you want to come over, let me know and I will tell you how to get here and when to come over. We'll even cook for you-I made beef stroganoff for Megan and it turned out great! We are going home this weekend though, so it will be nice to see a lot of the family.

That about wraps up my life at the moment. Oh wait, one other thing. Don't upgrade Windows MediaPlayer if you're used to the old one, because it screws up all your playlists and when you search by artists it separates it by album, which is confusing because then you can't just play an artist, you have to play a specific album, so if you only have 2 songs from that album, you have to switch. Or make a playlist just for that artist. I think. I haven't quite figured it out but I'm ticked that I had to upgrade. Stupid computer. I just want it back to how it was before.

In the beginning, the Universe was created. This made a lot of people angry, and has been widely regarded as a bad idea.

10 days?

I'm really surprised that it's been 10 days since I last wrote. Not really actually. I've been super busy. Eric and I have both started working, I volunteered at my mom's retreat this past weekend, and I've been researching like crazy. Have you ever read 10 books in 2 weeks? Not to mention multiple articles, a couple of encyclicals, some Catholic encyclopedias, eventually the Catechism, and all the time that goes into trying to find decent articles and books. I probably have looked at way more than 10 books, and I still have a couple to go, but so far I've read close to 10 and of those, 7 have been helpful. That's just books. Plus the other stuff I already mentioned. I'm hoping from the last 4 books that I have yet to read at least 2 of them will be useful. It's crazy-I think I have enough research, but at the same time, I want to make sure I not only have enough but that I have a deep knowledge of what I'm researching, so instead of just reviewing my research notes I find that it's probably good that I just keep reading. I'm definitely going to be slowing down though-I hope to have all, or if not all close to all, of my research done by the end of the weekend. Oh, and this is just for my honors project by the way. If I look for anything else, it'll be articles, not books. I'm not sure if I will though. Once my I write out my survey, it basically means that all my research is done. I can't write my survey without my research, but I need to get my survey out soon, so I'm writing it tomorrow. Which means my research is basically done and anything else I do is supplemental, either to add a bit more to my final paper or just for my own knowledge. The point is, I've been researching like crazy. I feel very scholarly actually. And a lot of what I'm reading is from really well-known and well-respected theologians. It's really a great experience. My friend asked me today if this is something I think I would want to do, this kind of research. I'm not sure yet-it is incredibly interesting and fun, apart from the hard work part, and although a lot of what I'm learning isn't super new, a lot of it is. I'm getting a very good background into Catholic morality, not just sexual morality but general, and into sexuality, not just sexual ethics. Plus, apparantly part of my project is basically brand new, no one has done anything quite like it before, so it's really flattering to hear my committee, who are all professors with doctorates, compliment me on the depth and direction of my project. I had never heard anything about something like this before, but I guess I didn't really think that I would create something original. It's a really good feeling. My committee is talking, just a little right now, about publishing my project. Whoa. Just thinking about it is scary. I'm doing real, scholarly work, like an actual theologian. I almost feel like an adult now.

Actually, that does remind me of something else that I've been experiencing a lot in my classes this year. I'm not sure if it's because I'm a senior and have had 3 years of college already or what, but I actually feel pretty smart in all of my classes, and really confident in my own intelligence. Normally I'm worried that what I'm going to say is wrong, or stupid, or I feel like basically everyone else in the class is smarter than me, and I don't feel like that at all this year. I feel at least equal in intelligence to everyone else, and I feel that what I have to say is intelligent and well thought out. It definitely makes for more enjoyable classes.

Did you think I was too stupid to know what a eugoogooly was?

Jobs

Yay for jobs, which Eric and I now have. He's working at Kohl's as a point of sales supervisor, and I'm not working at Underwater Adventures, but I am working at Allina, the corporate office in downtown Minneapolis, as an HR Intern. This means I'll be making more than I would at Underwater Adventures and I get to choose my hours so it's very flexible. My job will basically be scanning and indexing personnel files. Very exciting, I know. Plus, it counts as an internship, and it gives me a "foot in the door" as everybody is telling me. Which is actually kind of nice, because next year when I need some kind of full-time job, this is going to be very helpful. Neither Eric nor I are that happy about having to work because being newlyweds we don't really want to give up any of our time together, but we also realize we have to pay some bills, so we're forced into this position. Luckily, I have class 2 nights a week already so hopefully he'll be working those nights, and hopefully he won't have to work too much on the weekends.

Other than that, the only exciting thing in our lives is that I gave blood today (I'd include school but it's just a lot of work and research and writing). I've only given blood once before and that was 4 years ago, so I was a little nervous. But it went fine, and the only bad parts were when I had to pull the band-aid thing off and a bunch of hairs got pulled off so now there's a bare spot on my arm, and a couple times when I've stood up too quickly I've gotten a little lightheaded. Nothing too bad though. Plus I got free cookies, pop, and fruit snacks. Yum.

Ooh, great job man! I really thought you were retarded. I mean, you're better than that Corky kid and he's actually retarded. If there was a retarded Oscar you would win, hands down, kick his ass!