Cat_Robutt

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny aaaaaaaaugh @sjoh197 I don't kill spiders, but I think there is just something extra scary about having something unexpected happen while showering––you're naked, vulnerable, trying to get clean and then all of a sudden BAM what is that?! I remember finding a scorpion in my shower and it was awful! @hippyscientist DO IT! Although you may need more than juuuuust nutella....how about a side of peanut butter for protein? Also out of the jar of course!

@Neist your GA work sounds so, so much better than giant shower spiders. It's so cool that you will be doing what you want to be doing!

@hippyscientist Aw I'm sorry Have you been able to rest and relax a bit, at least? Also, what is with this thread and spiders?! Do they know? Are they reading this and searching for us? I think since I'm used to my family, I know what to expect from their quirks! And, weirdly, my parents have gotten a lot more open and understanding as they've aged, and we've become quite good friends. I'm mostly excited to see my older brother and my pard's older sister as we're all really close!

I swear! Yesterday we worked for 12 hours, cleaning, stripping wallpaper from the 70s in the bathroom, repairing and repainting. I bought a nice thick white curtain to match the new clean bathroom look (it was like the worst bachelor pad grossness); this morning, mom-in-law took down the curtain because she was worried it was see-through.....I was like, fam I ain't buying sheer curtains for the bathroom, quit second-guessing me! I've been paid for interior design services, pretty sure I know what I'm doing here. I can't tell if she's trying to gaslight me OR if she's just really into mansplaining.

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny Vacuuming up spiders..... nope nope nope I'm so sorry and that just sounds....terrifying. I really want to make a daddy long legs pun in relation to the move, but nothing is coming to mind (thankfully). @sjoh197 @Neist and @hippyscientist Thanks all for your sympathies! Venting a bit on here makes me know I'm not crazy. And I've got my pard and our cat and a safe little hiding space, so I think things will work. Here for one month, and then with my family for one month, and then on to State College. This is the weirdest summer! @Neist Congrats!!!! How exciting! Do you know the kind of work you will be doing? And @MarineBluePsy will you have funding, like an RA deal, instead? @hippyscientist I'm excited that you're excited! How are you feeling today? It's almost June! It's almost watermelon/boating/swimming/grilling weather!

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny I'm so sorry.... how are you holding up? I wish I could offer you a place to stay Is there anything we can do to help you other than using @sjoh197's terrifying big spiders to eat your apartment's spiders? We have made our first leg of the move! And it's not going super well. My pard's parents are major hoarders. Like, every available surface has random shit on it. They didn't even bother to pretend to tidy up for our stay. I've spent literally all day today cleaning and am feeling super grumpy––I don't want to think they are taking advantage of us because every time we visit, we fix things/paint things/tidy up, but it feels suspiciously like that. And it's so weird because they have all this money and time to make things nice (one's an associate dean and the other is a stay-at-homer), but they expect so much of us: I hosted Thanksgiving in our tiny-ass one room apartment for the past two years; I hosted them for our wedding; I repainted rooms in their house...and yet I still feel my pard's mother disapproves of me because I was the atheist tattooed masculine liberal harlot who stole her child. Argh! I'm just venting, and hopefully it will get better, but damn this family unit is dysfunctional. They're even more fucked up than my family unit, and that's saying something. Anyway, there's a wine festival tomorrow, so Ima just get sloshed and take it from there.

@drivingthoughts Neat! For me personally, if I don't have some kind of rigid schedule, I'm not disciplined enough to go through with really any kind of plan. Hopefully you find the right fit (no pun intended) and your 5k goes well!

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny Thank you! I used to run all the time in high school but dropped it in college, and now I'm learning how to be active without having an eating disorder, and it's really exciting! I'm just grateful my dad-in-law can be there––he's a cancer survivor, and the organization helped him when he was in treatment, so it's all warm and fuzzy to be able to give back via admissions fees and the like.

LOLZZZZ y'all are the best. I love everything coconut, so why not smell tasty enough to eat....during running....I'm so proud of my pard and I: we finished the 9 week couch to 5k program and we are running an actual 5k next week! It's for cancer survivors, so my dad-in-law is going to be there cheering us on from the sidelines How are you?! Has your day gotten any better? I....what...wait...what? This sounds amazing but what? Woohoo!!!!! You should dress up, even if you just stay in for the day, and gaze at your awesome self in the mirror. Are you near New York City @Pink Fuzzy Bunny? One of my close friends live there; I could possibly hook y'all up and she may be able to answer your queries. Also, how's your cat? What's going on?

It's so funny the things I miss here when I'm out for a few days––I leave, we're talking about Sims, I come back to free the nipple lol I'm just surprised no one has mentioned chafing yet, what with the reliably reasoned discussions we have. We move on Friday! I'm really nervous about being on the road for essentially two months....I've never spent more than a few days at my pard's childhood home, and can't believe we will be there for almost a month. Hoping things go well with the in-laws; if not, at least I'll have a boatload of really interesting stories to tell at awkward cocktail parties? @Neist Best of luck with your meeting(s)! You've probably got one of the best plans they've ever seen and they will be speechless. And @Effloresce I'm sure you've already done this, so sorry if this is redundant, but have you checked Padmapper and asked current students who will be graduating about their housing? I hope you're able to find a good place.

Bwahahaha I still remember eating these as a tiny southerner and my out-of-town aunt asking me what they were, followed by silence, then crunching. This is amazing!!! If you ever thought about selling these/taking commissions, I would totally buy one from you. YAY!!!!! That's fantastic news!

I would love to see pictures of this! That's amazing! My brother is like a real-life Sans, down to the bad puns and everything. @shesanecho Congrats! For the summer, if you can do a combination of getting R&R and reading up on current literature in the field, that may be a winning combination. This will be your last bit of "freedom" for some time. @MarineBluePsy It's so WEIRD which names get altered with foods. Plums=prunes, grapes=raisins, cucumbers=pickles, bananas=......dried bananas. Why don't bananas get some cool name? Because dried bananas just sound unappetizing, while craisins are like a freakin' party. Can you think of some other food names that get weirded once the food changes?

These recommendations are awesome! I second @sjoh197's rec of Dragon Age, and would add Mass Effect there as well. Also, if you do have Steam, Undertale is a fantastic, relatively short game that is well worth it. It's both really sweet and dark at the same time; I've played it three or four times now. Any Nintendo nerds here? I'm replaying Zelda: Skyward Sword and had forgotten how great the music is. It's a great soundtrack to have in the background when studying!

I tend to be more formal in email––if someone explicitly tells me how to refer to them, I do so; otherwise, I generally call them Title.Lastname. Then, if they tell me they go by a different nickname/gender pronoun/casual name, I can refer to them as that instead. People get my name wrong all the darn time, and I don't want to be a source of frustration when the first thing this person sees is a name or title they don't like.

I think part of this depends on where you are moving to––for example, establishing residency is more expensive in California than in New Mexico or Pennsylvania, as are getting car tags renewed. Some food for thought in this particular year, however: where you are a resident is where you vote. Mail-ins and early voting are fine, but you may want to consider brushing up on who is running for which seats in the place you will be spending the next several years. Local politics may influence changes in your community much more so than national elections.

@Neist Wait.....how have I never heard about Hedy's Folly?! Hedy Lamarr was AMAZING. She's one of the most famous women in modern communication history (or she isn't and only I'm excited about her)! I will definitely get this book. I don't think I've read anything by Walter Isaacson; for me, my least favorite would have to be the Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. It just.....no, hun, no. Do you like documentaries?

@Eigen thanks for your input! As an adjunct, it sometimes surprises me when students don't know or don't care when they are asking questions we've gone over several times––that's when it gets frustrating for me. Or, as you said, they ask for advice and then discard all of it. I just think––if your professor suggests you look up something, incorporate a certain cite, or try a new methodology, it's in your best interest as a student to take that advice to heart, right?

Hey fellow Lions(?)! I posted this on the State College page but am also posting it here just in case: Hope you all have been able to find places to live and that things are going well for you all! AETNA's dental plan for graduate assistant/fellows is now live (you can find your ID number under Lionpath: Demographics); the medical plan for non-graduate assistant/fellow graduate students is also available; the medical plan for GAs is heavily subsidized, so once we get closer to the semester starting, hopefully we'll receive updates. Also, if you've been having any difficulty registering for your courses in Lionpath, let me know! It's a new system used by PSU and it's a bit buggy, but I made a tiny tutorial for a few other students in my cohort.

I think I'm on the other side, worried that the older students will think I'm asking TOO many questions! I just have a lot of questions....and they are so much closer to the finish line than me, so why not listen to them?

I feel ya!! I'm so excited for the Fall but also spend hours agonizing over every email I send to my prospective profs because I'm worried they will think I'm some kind of dolt. If you feel awkward at PSU, you can always find me and explain some maths and I will be BLOWN AWAY because I have a sad level of proficiency there. Also, there are free on-campus yoga classes at the Wellness Center, so hopefully that will spark some joy

Hope you all have been able to find places to live and that things are going well for you all! AETNA's dental plan for graduate assistant/fellows is now live (you can find your ID number under Lionpath: Demographics); the medical plan for non-graduate assistant/fellow graduate students is also available; the medical plan for GAs is heavily subsidized, so once we get closer to the semester starting, hopefully we'll receive updates. Also, if you've been having any difficulty registering for your courses in Lionpath, let me know! It's a new system used by PSU and it's a bit buggy, but I made a tiny tutorial for a few other students in my cohort.

@hippyscientist You learn something new every day!!! Oh, btw, for you and @rhombusbombus––grad assistants can now register for the AETNA dental plan! Yay?

@sjoh197 Delicious!!! I still remember when I discovered prunes were just dried plums @hippyscientist I can introduce you to Steven Universe if you'd like! It's an animated kids' show that's quite sweet without being twee. Also, if you like fantasy and crime/thrillers, I highly encourage American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett. It's a long read, but it's amazing. His newest two books, City of Stairs and City of Blades, are also fantastic, especially if you like women of color kicking ass, gods, monsters, and lots of intrigue. @Neist Do you have any favorite biographies/ biographers? And any least fave?

@hippyscientist I'm not sure yet––I emailed the professor (who I'm also taking a course with) to get some deets. Also, I've never watched Teen Wolf or True Blood, but I do love Penny Dreadful, so that counts for something right? My media is super random, ranging from lighthearted Steven Universe to super weird Danger 5 to melodramatic Penny Dreadful to chirpy Gilmore Girls. I'm like the test audience Nielson never knew they never wanted. And @Pink Fuzzy Bunny How were your green eggs and ham? Was the sandwich at least tasty.....?

@hippyscientist I just started watching Gilmore Girls for the first time about a month ago....am almost done with Season 1. It's like there was this whole side of American pop culture that I just get now! Unrelated, I just got an admission decision notification from a school where I withdrew my application. The notification was a standard rejection, and all I could think was "that's a little passive-aggressive, y'all." Also got my assistantship notification today, and am super excited!!! I get to help with a class called "Media & Democracy." Stoked!