It's about time I wrote a proper blog post. It's been what, 2 months or so?

Why am I posting, you ask? In celebration of NaBloPoMo, of course!

Here's what I've been up to for the past few months or so:

I got a car! It's been dubbed "Stevie" in honor of Steve Irwin since I got it the day after he was attacked by a stingray. It's a black 92 Honda Civic and gets between 28-38 mpg. (Who needs a Prius! Ha!) Bonus: I found a stash of Bollywood tapes in the backseat last weekend.

I'm TA'ing again, same as over the summer. EXACTLY the same (if you know what I mean...) except that things have slowed down considerably. We only do one week's worth of material at a time, rather than 2. I like it, but I'm getting bored. This is my 4th time teaching the class and I'm getting antsy. I want to teach something besides methods. I may revisit some of my old undergrad research in the next few weeks.

Which brings me to my next point: I'm reapplying to grad school. I've decided that I unconsciously sabotaged my applications last year because I knew I didn't want to do Social Psych. After some reflection, I decided that there's really only one piece of Social Psych that I'm really interested in and I could really care less about the rest of it. So, this time around I'm applying to Sociology and interdisciplinary programs in the social sciences. I've got a few schools picked out, apps are due anywhere from the dreaded December 15th to February 1st. (Yes! February!) Unfortunately, since these programs are more qualitative (which is what I want) they also require a writing sample. Last week I had the humbling experience of re-reading some of my papers I wrote as an undergrad. Ouch. I was embarrassed by my horrible disregard for APA style! If that was one of my student's papers...yeah. Not good. Soo...I have some major editing and writing in store in the next few weeks. I think I'm going to submit my Psych thesis (I need to completely re-do the data analyses and re-read the literature, I haven't even looked at that stuff for about three years) and a paper I wrote on Dutch immigration and integration. That one is a little bit better but completely lacks organization. Again, I need to re-read everything because it's been so long since I even glanced at that stuff. Then there's the personal statement, emailing faculty members, and keeping all of the paperwork, requirements, and deadlines in order. I need a personal assistant! Maybe I could hire one of my students...

Let's see...Other than that things have been pretty uneventful, which is good. Colette and I toyed with the idea of going to NYC in November to "look at grad schools" and see an Ani concert. Maybe we'll go in January when things are a little less crazy.

Last night Colette and I went to Arbat, a new Russian restaurant in town, and saw Running with Scissors. I don't think I'm a huge fan of Russian food. It's OK, but I've never really liked beets so the borscht wasn't my favorite. I did like the dumplings and fried potato-onion-pie things (Chebourashki? no wait, I think that's the little ). Very hearty and filling. The kitchen is right in the middle of the restaurant so you can see them cooking. It looked like the only kitchen appliances they had were a food processor and an Oster blender that looks just like mine. I think that means I can make Russian food at home!

The movie was interesting, like a real-life The Royal Tenenbaums. Go see it. Be prepared to ask "when is it over" and "where is this movie going" after about an hour when the plot seems to be going nowhere. Trust me, it gets even weirder at the end.

Oh yeah. I'm also on MySpace now. I know. I'm no longer cool.