Rugs And Oliver Are Oriental
I woke up early this morning. To the sound of an alarm clock, even. I pulled myself out of bed before Clara was awake. It was before 7:00am. Looks like my short vacation is over.
Today I attended the first day of orientation. We have seven - count 'em - seven days of orientation. Today required a suit. Tomorrow we wear shorts. We looked so lovely in our dark suits, sitting in the Hinckley Center. Guess what color my shirt wasn't, David.
It was great to finally start to meet the people with whom I will be studying for the next two years. I met the four other members of my study group ... excuse me, learning team. With a diversity of backgrounds, I'm excited to see how we'll work together. During the day we listened to talks from the people who run the program, had time to get acquainted with our teammates, learned about the computer systems the professors use, took pictures, and had small-group and large-group discussions. I'm definitely one of the older ones. And I have significantly more work experience than most.
I caught a ride home with one of the guys in my study group. Guess what he and his wife have been dealing with for the past three years? When I told Kristin she asked me, "Is this our lot in life? Wherever we go are we going to find people in the Church who deal with infertility?" It's looking so.
Having three weeks free from work and school has been a great blessing. I've had the chance to witness first-hand the madness Kristin endures on a daily basis. I've been able to play with Clara: wrestling, playing the "I'm about to lick your nose" game, tickling her, and witnessing her vocabulary expand. I've been able to walk over to my wonderful wife at any time and give her a hug, exasperate her with some comment, or just reach out and hold her hand. I have such appreciation for the love and care she gives Clara. And the love and care she gives me.
School is going to be good. And I know this is my lot in life to miss these daily things. But sometimes I wish for a windfall, so that I could see every moment of the next eighteen years rather than just these eighteen short days.
Labels: grad school
10 Comments: (Post a Comment)
Oh for heaven's sake. David loves colored shirts in general - just not at church. He doesn't wear white shirts to work.
LOL! Jeff started wearing white shirts a lot more when he started working with the young men...
In support of the LDS infertility crowd, yes, you will run into us everywhere, why? It's more prevelant than you think. (there's a great support/yahoo group at www.2ofus4now.org).
Sorry we missed you in Colorado (at first I was going to offer food/hotel in IL, but realized we wouldn't be there), then I discovered we were camping when you came through CO. Oh well. Good luck with it all!!!
The infertility comment made me smile Oliver. Kristin and I were such close friends all through high school and although I am not LDS, my husband and I dealt with it too. We have the twins now and that may be it considering what it took to get them. So basically Kristin has been a magnet for the "infertile crowd" since she was 14.
I think you will always be one with the most work experience wherever you go. Didn't practically teach the java class you took? I'm sorry your vacation is over.
And Kristin rules. :)
Are you trying to pick a fight with two references to non-white dress shirts? You're such an apostate ;)
Yeah, you'll go through a lot of orientations. This group that you've been put with will be your second family for the next semester. Joseph almost spent more time with them than with me. That won't ever happen again, though, or at least it didn't for him. He got really close with them and they stayed great friends the whole rest of the program, even though he wasn't the same track as any of them and didn't have many classes with them the rest of the program. Hope yours is a good group who meshes well!
We have some friends who just started the program, too. His name is Joe Knight and he's got dark, curly hair (providing that he's still keeping it long enough to be curly). His wife's name is Candida. You won't meet everyone, but I just thought I'd throw that out there in case he's in your group or something. He and Joseph were roommates at BYU for a while back in the day.
I'm interested in seeing what kind of letters to the editor you'll generate in the Daily Universe over your lack of a white shirt.
Long live the slightly rebellious ones. :)
I'm going to side with Bonnie and David on this one. White shirts for Church; other shirts the rest of the time.
My first comment upon your arrival to the mecca. WELCOME! We'd love to see you sometime soon. Dinner here perhaps? Hope the move in and all are going well. Say hello to Kristin (and darling Clara) for us.
I used to think I was going back for another masters degree or maybe even my PhD, but after reading this I could just imagine sitting in a study group again, and I shuddered. I think it's awesome that you made the jump.
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