GreenePony

DH had this exact problem in grad school- he stayed at our alma mater (this point where we met) and tried to stay involved the same amount he was in undergrad. This really did not work for him- it would have gone a lot better for him if he had separated undergrad expectations from grad expectations. I haven't run into that problem yet since we moved and are just plugging into the new church (or involved in anything else yet). Something a friend suggested is to limit one day (he chose Sunday) to no schoolwork whatsoever. Since you already have your little during the day, could you set up a standing time with friends in the evening? Does your church have a grad student group? Before DH and I started attending our young marrieds w/o kids class (really, young professionals with too many degrees ), we went to one and everyone was really understanding of crazy schedules. It worked out a lot better than sticking with the regular college ministry. During crunch time people were really understanding if you just "disappeared" into the library. Even in our young marrieds class, we kept our small group/Bible study to Sunday evenings so it didn't run into "real life" and had social events on other days and if someone had a presentation, conference, trial, etc that week everyone was really understanding if they didn't come that week. I think taking your mentor kids to the library to do schoolwork is a good idea- you're still setting a good example but also getting to spend time with them.

They look very comfy- and would work for your visits

I think it sounds fine. The only hiccup I could think of are the shoes. What kind of sandals? Dressy/strappy/ more foot coverage/less coverage? Have you walked in them before (think blisters)? I wore what I thought were practical mary janes for orientation- 6 blisters, wore them again with heavy duty band-aids for my first day, 3 more blisters.

I've been looking into my options for lunch/dinner on the day where I'm in the district from 10a-8p, ugh. I thought the cafe's on the mall were overpriced. Nope, 9.50 sandwich is totally normal. Thankfully our groceries have only gone up about 10 a week on average, so far.

Has anyone used Imogen Lamport's blog (http://www.insideoutstyleblog.com/)? I had a time telling if I was an X or 8 but I do like that she gives practical advice about professional wear and figuring our proportions . I refuse to believe I'm as proportional as the ratios say, so I'm blaming any discrepancy on my bust. That's always a valid argument.

I just bought a white shirt that is tailored near perfectly that normally sells for 160, you bet I'm wearing it year round. I've never been one for white bottoms though, I have a white and grey chevron skirt that's close enough that I may wear a little bit in the fall, it's just a bit seasonal with length and style.

Funding I think would be limited. Looking at the problems my peers had in applying to programs if their focus was too domestic this seems to be a common idea. People have commented that my resume was far more impressive because I did research in Guatemala, especially when compared to peers who stayed in Texas. That being said, in my program there were a number of domestic studies in the assigned readings: Diary of a Winnebago (Midwest), In Search of Respect (Harlem), Danger, Duty and Disillusion (LAPD), in addition to ones on the homeless in California, the peyote cult in the midwest, and a couple of others, so my professors (who focus on the "exotic" maya) seem to want to find a balance between the two. I guess part of the disparity is that the layman, and in some cases, those that study anthropology, are swayed by the traditional conception of anthropology- all Anthropologists should be like Mead and go to a far off exotic land to study someone who is so different from them. It seems more impressive to make a huge visible effort for your research than to take the "easy" route and stay in country (not that this isn't difficult, if I recall correctly, Bourgois ended up being divorced by his wife for his research after In Search of Respect).

I'm all for a well tailored high waisted trouser. BUT my pairs are pocketless (no mile-wide behind optical illusion) and from a 1930s repro pattern so they don't look 90s, vaguely 70s at worst. Oh, and they have more than a 1" inseam. The 90s jeans I saw looked like the girls were wearing denim diapers. I realized this past weekend that my mom dresses more "in style" than I do. I was very sad.

I was used a southern belle sort of interpretation of what a lot of undergrads wear- that meant bits were more or less covered. We walked around campus yesterday to get our IDs and I was shocked. 90s jean shorts with see-through thin tank-like things tucked in. Thin shirts that you would have to be dressed in the dark to not realize I can totally see your ill fitting bra (soooo many badly fitted bras if they are worn at all). Shirts with sleeves cut off and stretched so the armhole ends at the bottom of the rib cage... My friend wore a cute semi-sheer top with a deep keyhole front and back for orientation but with a black cami underneath, it was very professional and the cami blended into the shirt. Is that so hard?

That's along the lines of what I was thinking, awesome!

What's the general consensus for how to dress for orientation? I've never met anyone in the department (beyond a friend from ug) so I'm concerned about first impressions- over dress, under dressed, etc. It's only a half day with a possible advisement meeting in the afternoon ... and then the next day I have a meeting with someone at the natural history museum about a volunteer position and that has me even more confused on what to wear.

DH and I rented a cottage on Maui for part of our honeymoon and we were shocked at food prices (especially since we were past Haiku).

I've heard it depends on your program. DH took some grad classes, working towards a MCS at our alma mater but the director of my program said while they would be happy to have me, he thought it would be better to go elsewhere since I would be retaking several classes from the same professors.

Sometimes I wonder if Olive is more cat than dog, she sleeps like one, loves to lay all over (or walk) the laptop... but she's certainly loud enough to be a card carrying Sheltie

When I was going through the application process I made sure anything associated with my maiden name was "okay". The problem is now is that my married name is incredibly common so good luck to anyone trying to find anything on me without using my maiden name as well, even if you search within museums. Unfortunately one of the first links with my professional (maiden+married) name is a poorly chosen quote by my undergrad newspaper

We're adjusting from having no option (HEB had an monopoly) in where we shopped in one of the cheapest cities in the US (5-600/month for the two of us) to have 4-5 options (usually go to Giant and Trader Joe's, but sometimes Harris Teeter depending on where we are and what we need) and spending maybe 650/month, including dog food. Thankfully her kibble works out to $1/day for high quality food and her treats are dried sweet potato so still pretty cheap. We decided a big box membership wasn't worth it, my parents have one so if we really need something in bulk, we can drive 2.5 hours and go with them. All of the groceries around here use discount/member cards anyway.

These are kind of young-cute but I wear these pretty often since they can fit my orthotics and I bet they would be fine for biking as long you're not using clip-in pedals since the strap is elasticized for a good fit (I suggest some sort of liner-sock since some of the fabrics do not breathe) http://www.zappos.com/product/7851701/color/401 mine are in "patent" (available on other sites) Have you considered switching shoes once you got to campus, carrying your other shoes in your bag?

I never posted pictures of my Olive! (or as she is more commonly called right now 'stinkerface') This last one is after the move to the new apartment (and when she got the name stinkerface), we dared to go into DC and left her home alone. She was not happy when we got back and even more unhappy that the laptop was positioned so she couldn't lay on top of it to get my attention.

Might want to check out Biubiu too. I've been meaning to put in an order for their Pasedena dress and some of their shirts

There's a difference between skin-tight and tailored. For a professional appearance you want tailored. I have a very full bust so have to walk this line carefully since I could go the easy route and buy tight jersey/knits so you can even get a hint of a waist but then I would get the strum-strum effect. Finding clothes that fit is important, even if you hate the size it's listed at (I fit anywhere from 2 to 14/16 depending on the brand and style) and then altering or having them altered to fit with the correct amount of ease. A good tailor (if you don't feel you are up to doing it yourself) is a great thing to find. Finding blogs that focus on dressing my body type helped too. I'm not sure how you are defining 'curvy' but hourglassy's blog roll is great for covering both conventional definitions.

A friend in the same program used a Vera Bradley diaper bag all through ug and I think is planning on using for grad school and it's held up pretty well. It's not waterproof but at least you can throw it in the washer when it gets gross.

Good luck, my 15 lbs dog now answers to the name 'stinkerface' after our move

DH's parents and mine were really awesome and covered Uhaul rental, hotels along the way, and un/load help. That still left ~4000 with gas, deposits, licenses, title, registration, snacks, rent, ... and texts haven't even been posted yet (thankfully I took two of the topics in UG so hopefully there will be overlap in industry standard books) so that's another 200+