greetings from.... dallas, texas! well i was in columbus, ohio, but i'm just now getting around to typing this. lazy, i know. anywhoo... i was in columbus from wednesdai to mondai working a conference. i'm not full time like i was in the spring and summer. i'm what they call a guest, so they only call me when they need extra people. which is cool, cause i get to rack up more frequent flier miles (i'm sad that northwest got bought out by delta so they are all on delta now  ) and i make a quick 500 bucks for working with some kids. and i will say, these kids were awesome. two thumbs up for ohio kids. i thought they were gonna be like the indiana kids, and i didn't quite like them. but these were good. i will honestly miss them. i will never forget them, because half of them have added me on facebook already. but i had a fun time. i worked with a basically new staff. i only knew two of the people. oh, and there was three people with my name. but people were able to tell me apart because i was the only black one. hell i was the only black person on staff. hey, it happens, but it's all good. the hotel was awesome, the ride there? not so much. i was a lil forgetful and i didn't make a shuttle reservation ahead of time, so i kinda just hopped in and told the guy where i was tryna go. he had to use GPS. columbus didn't seem that big, so if you are a shuttle driver, why are you using GPS? that puzzles me everytime i see it. not only that, they just wanted to start some construction right in the front of the hotel, so he had to drop me off in the ALLEY next to it. are you serious? me no likey that. of course with coming to a new city, xanga meet-ups are bound to happen. so who's home is in columbus? thebigshowatud. on sundai, after i finished up with the kids, we talked on the phone and we talked about him hypothetically bringing me chipotle because all the restaurants around me were fancy smancy and i didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for food. so he shows up at my hotel (with the hypothetical chipotle in hand) and i eat my (AWESOME) food and we watch football. damn ohio didn't show the cowboys game (HOW BOUT DEM COWBOYS!) so i watched the san fran vs indy game and the minnesota vs green bay game. that brett farve is a BEAST. and he 40? damn. he is going to have some serious arthritis when he get older though... after the food, we went on a nighttime walking tour of downtown (during which i FROZE). and they have this huge ass statue of christopher columbus. the dude gets LOST and he gets a city AND a statue? can i go get lost real quick?! what ya'll gonna give me????!!!?!?! i felt like i was at home for two seconds when we were at a light waiting to cross the street and this early 90's monte carlo rolls up with a nice paint job and huge chrome rims. the south has escaped to the midwest!!! and really, i don't think ohio should be considered midwest. its next to pennsylvania, which is next to the ocean. but its not quite northeast either. i don't know what to call it. so after that, i returned to my hotel and worked on my prelims some more (i failed to mention i'm taking prelims didn't i?) then i went to bed. the next day i woke up (late for a change. FINALLY!), repacked, and got ready to go to the airport. i had to take a cab, which i don't like to do (damn bone collector movie!) and i had fairly good flights to back dallas.
onto other random stuff being that i have been MIA for a month... my dissertation proposal was accepted. i defend it NEXT MONDAI.  i also defend my prelim exam answers on mondai as well. they call that a 2 for 1. why schedule two meetings when you can knock these out at one time? i'm going to have to study really hard because everything that i didn't write in the paper, i will need to be able to say in the meeting. i don't know what to expect. my prof is supposed to be calling me later to tell me what to do about mondai. ummm... i'm supposed to be researching but i'm not, and i'm using prelims as my excuse!  i will get to it, trust me, i just need to handle my business first before i go working on somebody else's stuff. hmm... that's about it. i don't do much.  next stop... DENVER! where it will be even MORE cold than columbus! until next time, TOODLES! | 
