New beginnings

We haven't seen the sun in five days, but spring is close; I can feel it. The tree right outside my bedroom window, that always blooms with outrageous red pompoms, is in full flower. And my other sure marker of spring - the weekend visit of prospective graduate students - is next week. I've always suspected the university of timing that visit so that it happens at peak bloomy-ness in Maryland. When, like me, you've lived in an overcast place like Cleveland to do your undergraduate work, and then you walk on to the Maryland campus, with blue skies blazing and flowers bursting forth, you naturally think, "It would be springtime all the time if I lived here!" This distracts you from the misery of graduate school that you are signing up for.

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I've solved my computer woes, I think. My advisor left her old laptop with our group when she upgraded; since I'm the only person who uses it, I've commandeered it. It solves a lot of my software issues because now I'll only be using one computer regularly instead of the previous four. I'm thinking of splurging for a new battery too, even if I'll only be using for the year and a half I left. The idea of having a laptop that actually works without being plugged in is rather heady. This is the third laptop I've ever had, and every one has been a hand-me-down. This has the obvious benefit that I have never paid one thin time towards a laptop, but all three have therefore had non-usable batteries. I have grand dreams of writing my thesis while sitting under trees in the front yard (which I have actually done in the past, using my husband's laptop, but that required the use of an extra-long extension cord).