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I moved to a new apartment two weeks ago and decided to give away my TV to a deserving couple who needed one. There are a few things I realized quickly when you no longer have a television:
1. As soon as it gets dark you’re ready for bed
2. There is a LOT more time available
3. Once the sun goes down you feel like it is really late, when it’s only 9:30pm
4. You finally get around to those books you’ve purchased and set aside before because you were too ‘busy’
Granted I never had much time during the school year and so I never watched much TV, but I am enthralled to be reading again! It’s fabulous. I am currently going through the Barnes & Noble Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume 1 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
I actually finished Doyle’s first short story, “A Study in Scarlet” and I was very much impressed by how ageless his writing is. There were some words I had to pull the ‘ol dictionary out for, however, thanks to the foot and endnotes in this edition I was able to get through the story quite well.
I decided to read Sherlock Holmes’ stories seeing as he was one of the mainstream fictional ‘forensic scientists’ (if you will) of his time. When he mentioned an infallible confirmatory test for blood I got really excited and realized what a total nerd I was for getting excited.
Now if only we could discover such a test with no cross reactions!
On the other spectrum of my life, is of course my impending nuptials. After realizing that my future groom is going white water rafting for his bachelor party/activity I became rather jealous and wondered why I didn’t think of such a fun thing to do. So here I am in my darkened living room, sans TV, trying to brainstorm a fun thing to do with my lovely ladies.
Alas, I think I will just go to bed and think upon it.
TO DO:
1. Finish wedding bulletins –for the life of me I could not print them out properly
2. Decorate the basket for cards
3. Finish secret project for my dearest (it’s a surprise!)
4. Pray that his car that broke down today will not cost more $$$ and that it will last until we both graduate!
5. Figure out what to do for bachelorette party/activity
6. Several other things that I will think of as I try to sleep tonight
7. ZZZZzzz…
Well now that I am no longer in school and semi-recovered from the semester I have been focusing (finally) on my wedding that is next Saturday.
Today we:
1. Applied for our marriage license which was less than exciting
2. Decided on the songs the pianist/organist is going to play
3. Made a meeting with the DJ
4. Called the florist to make a final appointment
5. Submitted the forms to the church to reserve the space and supplies for the rehearsal and wedding day
6. Wrote several checks and watched our small savings dwindle away!
7. Began working on the bulletins to hand out on the wedding day
Whew.
I planned on this blog being professional, but since school is over for now (well, if I passed my Core Exam) it will more personal over the summer due to the lack of school. However, once my internship begins I will comment on the progress of that project as well.
On a random note… Today I actually used the knowledge I learned in my law and science course about the Fourth Amendment and Searches. This was refreshing because it demonstrated that I actually learned AND remembered something! So beware if you are carrying drugs or something else illegal because if you are stopped for a traffic violation you can be searched!
On the subject of forensics, my next task is to scope out areas in California and the Carolinas to see where I can find work after I graduate in December. My fiancé is planning on entering a residency in one of those three states and would like to find out which hospitals are closest to the forensic laboratories. This next year will truly be both exciting and insane, but I look forward to finding work (at last!) because I believe this field is something I will enjoy immensely.
In conclusion, I am very fortunate to have planned most of the wedding last summer because with the school schedule I had over the last year there was no way that I could have had extra time to plan this event. So if you are getting ready to get married, I highly recommend planning ahead if you have other responsibilities. I will also begin my search for future work and find some professional organizations to join so I can attend some conferences and start networking.
Now that I have successfully survived the CORE Exam (whether or not I failed I will not know for 2 weeks), I can now focus on my upcoming wedding. I highly do not recommend trying to plan a wedding during your first year in graduate school due to the stress level of it all, but luckily my fiancé was extremely helpful and he actually did much of the planning when I was too busy in school to help.
My wedding is in two weeks and once I relax this weekend I can get back to work, since next week I will be meeting the florist, photographer, DJ, and the wedding coordinator at the reception hall. If everything goes well I will be picking up my wedding dress tonight after the tailor cuts off the excess material at the bottom after she hemmed the dress several inches.
School, however, is still in the forefront of my mind because this past semester I was able to get a glimpse of what being a forensic scientist would be like and I am very much determined to get there.
Courtroom testimony had to be one of my favorite classes and being qualified as an expert witness (even in a mock trial) just made me feel so good about all the hard work I had been putting into school. Testifying was a neat combination of teaching and applied science because I had to be able to explain some of the more complex science behind the results in a way that a member of the general public could understand. It was truly a unique experience and I hope to be doing it on a regular basis sometime in the future.
I have to get ready for my bridal shower -yay and I look forward to seeing what the theme and everything is!
So today I took a CORE exam that basically descides whether or not an entire year of graduate school was wasted. Despite having a GPA over a 3.0, this test will determine my fate. I can only pray that this will not keep me from my eventual goal of becoming a forensic scientist sometime soon!
