WINE, WAIT, AND WHINE THREAD

[rosali]

@piglet33 Good point. I really like swimming and yoga, but I should give lifting a try. I'm living in the perfect place for hiking, so I've been doing that, and skiing a couple times a week. I also do human tower building (it's a local sport, and the weirdest thing ever, but I love it), but I really need to start working out more regularly (ie every day). 

[Neist]

29 minutes ago, piglet33 said:

Sometimes I'll throw in some surfing and rock climbing if I have the time, hiking when I can get out and general "adventuring". 

This is a great idea! I love being outdoors. Yesterday I went scrambling at Charon's Garden Wilderness here in Oklahoma. I'm terribly sore today, but it was fun!

Here's what most of the area I was in looks like.

[anxietygirl]

Thank you, everyone! I'm currently watching Gilmore Girls and drinking peppermint tea (though of course my email is open in the next tab). Hopefully I'll be hearing something in the next day or so! Planning an elaborate gnocchi dish for dinner... 

[floatinggreenskull]

I'm not a student now (graduated with my bachelor's last May), and that coupled with the fact that I am not working much at the moment has put me in a weird limbo with wayyyyy too much free time. Last semester I was incessantly occupied with finishing my first conference paper + flying out of country to present it, studying for the GRE, and all that application madness. Now that it's all said and done...I feel so isolated, restless, and just blah.

All of my friends have jobs. I'm missing people and mentors of mine at my undergrad uni intensely, but I have no reason to hang around there any more, and everyone's essentially too busy to see me on any regular basis anyway, so it sucks. Here I sit, hermit-like, my days bleeding into one another, working on various personal projects but honestly having a very difficult time not obsessing over hearing back from schools. This is just a very special kind of frustration. 

I'm trying to be proactive in distracting myself, and I realise that I will likely miss this quieter time if I get accepted anywhere and launch back into academic life...but :/ 

Edited January 25, 2016 by floatinggreenskull

[rosali]

@Neist Wow, that's really beautiful!

[Iwanttogotothere]

1 hour ago, Neist said:

1 hour ago, piglet33 said:

Sometimes I'll throw in some surfing and rock climbing if I have the time, hiking when I can get out and general "adventuring". 

This is a great idea! I love being outdoors. Yesterday I went scrambling at Charon's Garden Wilderness here in Oklahoma. I'm terribly sore today, but it was fun!

Here's what most of the area I was in looks like.

This is exactly what I've been doing, too! Adventuring is all I can do to keep from going crazy waiting for schools  Luckily I'm in Colorado so there's a lot of good options. I went snowshoeing in the Rockies last weekend for the first time and it was the best distraction. If you don't have the outdoorsy options, exploring new places in the city you're in is also a good distraction! I like trying new coffee shops.

[rhombusbombus]

1 hour ago, floatinggreenskull said:

I'm not a student now (graduated with my bachelor's last May), and that coupled with the fact that I am not working much at the moment has put me in a weird limbo with wayyyyy too much free time. Last semester I was incessantly occupied with finishing my first conference paper + flying out of country to present it, studying for the GRE, and all that application madness. Now that it's all said and done...I feel so isolated, restless, and just blah.

All of my friends have jobs. I'm missing people and mentors of mine at my undergrad uni intensely, but I have no reason to hang around there any more, and everyone's essentially too busy to see me on any regular basis anyway, so it sucks. Here I sit, hermit-like, my days bleeding into one another, working on various personal projects but honestly having a very difficult time not obsessing over hearing back from schools. This is just a very special kind of frustration. 

I'm trying to be proactive in distracting myself, and I realise that I will likely miss this quieter time if I get accepted anywhere and launch back into academic life...but :/ 

Same here! I ended up taking a post-bacc class at a school down the street from my house. It's a genetics class so i'm sure it'll help me in grad school. It's definitely helping my boredom right now.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

2 hours ago, katpillow said:

I like doing that too, except when I try, it's on a frozen Lake Michigan and I either get all cut up from ice or get hypothermia.

Hahaha! I once was adventurous on Lake Michigan... I ended up stranded in the lake in an inflatable dinghy for ~16 hours and the Coast Guard had to come save me. I stay away from lakes now

 

[floatinggreenskull]

54 minutes ago, rhombusbombus said:

Same here! I ended up taking a post-bacc class at a school down the street from my house. It's a genetics class so i'm sure it'll help me in grad school. It's definitely helping my boredom right now.

Acch yeah I wish I had the funds to take a class like that!

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

I just e-mailed the POI from my top school (that I was accepted to). I spelled his name wrong

 

[Neist]

2 hours ago, Iwanttogotothere said:

This is exactly what I've been doing, too! Adventuring is all I can do to keep from going crazy waiting for schools  Luckily I'm in Colorado so there's a lot of good options. I went snowshoeing in the Rockies last weekend for the first time and it was the best distraction. If you don't have the outdoorsy options, exploring new places in the city you're in is also a good distraction! I like trying new coffee shops.

Wow, yeah, I bet you have all sorts of places like this in Colorado! I really wish I lived closer to the mountains. Maybe grad school can grant me that wish.  

4 hours ago, rosali said:

@Neist Wow, that's really beautiful!

Thanks! Not a lot of Oklahoma looks that way, but it's pretty fantastic, right? 

The one problem with that area is that it's in a wildlife refuge where bison roam. It's hardly ever an issue, but bison can be... moody. And their huge, which doesn't help.

[Foreveronward]

I'm trying not to get overly pessimistic, but the longer I wait, the less hopeful I feel. (Ha, and the application was due Jan 4th; it hasn't even been a month.) On one hand, it's cut down the amount i browse thefradcafe and /r/gradschool. On the other, I'm pretty miserable. I'm always excited to see the posts about other people getting in, though! 

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

8 minutes ago, Foreveronward said:

I'm trying not to get overly pessimistic, but the longer I wait, the less hopeful I feel. (Ha, and the application was due Jan 4th; it hasn't even been a month.) On one hand, it's cut down the amount i browse thefradcafe and /r/gradschool. On the other, I'm pretty miserable. I'm always excited to see the posts about other people getting in, though! 

I didn't know /r/gradschool was a thing. WHY HAVE YOU GIVEN ME ANOTHER SOURCE FOR ANXIETY

[Foreveronward]

Just now, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

I didn't know /r/gradschool was a thing. WHY HAVE YOU GIVEN ME ANOTHER SOURCE FOR ANXIETY

Anxiety? You've been accepted to SIX schools. You should be excited 24/7.
 

Also, that subreddit is great. It's got a lot of great topics that aren't admissions related and tons of useful advice threads. 

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

10 minutes ago, Foreveronward said:

Anxiety? You've been accepted to SIX schools. You should be excited 24/7.
 

Also, that subreddit is great. It's got a lot of great topics that aren't admissions related and tons of useful advice threads. 

True, true... I started out not thinking I wouldn't get accepted anywhere (my school is shoddy, my subject GRE score would make an adcomm frown) but now that I have six, I'm extremely greedy and for some reason think I can maybe get into Yale or Cornell. So my anxiety is a bit misplaced for sure

 

[Foreveronward]

Just now, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

True, true... I started out not thinking I wouldn't get accepted anywhere (my school is shoddy, my subject GRE score would make an adcomm frown) but now that I have six, I'm extremely greedy and for some reason think I can maybe get into Yale or Cornell. So my anxiety is a bit misplaced for sure

 

I don't think it's misplaced... I think it's a bit easy for me to tell you not to be anxious since I see 6 acceptances and think you must be a stellar applicant. Still, admissions is a crazy enough process that I understand the anxiety. What if the adcomm is having a bad day? What if they don't like your UG school for ~reasons~? So frustrating! Still, I'll be following your saga and hoping for the best.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

10 minutes ago, Foreveronward said:

I don't think it's misplaced... I think it's a bit easy for me to tell you not to be anxious since I see 6 acceptances and think you must be a stellar applicant. Still, admissions is a crazy enough process that I understand the anxiety. What if the adcomm is having a bad day? What if they don't like your UG school for ~reasons~? So frustrating! Still, I'll be following your saga and hoping for the best.

And the same with you. The same with all of you, really. I like looking and seeing when you guys add a few more "greens" or "blues" into your signatures. I'm on this forum so often that I've sort of memorized who's gotten in where... so sad

 

[hippyscientist]

@Neist wow that's beautiful. I really miss the US for the outdoorsy stuff. Where I live at the moment has town (where you're overdressed if you go in with a full set of teeth), the university (where I spend all of my time), and muddy fields. I don't have transport so I'm stuck to where my feet can take me, but it's led to some interesting adventures just setting off with food and water in my backpack. Ended up walking to the nearest "city" (it has SHOPS! I really live in the middle of nowhere lol) which was about 15 miles away. Thankfully managed to hitchhike back. 

@rosali working out every day isn't good for you! Do scheduled exercise (like gym/swim) 3 or 4 days a week and the rest just throw in active recovery. Things like yoga, hiking, heck putting on music and having a good old dance while you clean. The trick is to move, it doesn't have to be a chore, and the more exercise is a chore the worse habits you'll get in to. When were kids, being told to go outside and play was the best thing ever, and it was almost impossible to get me to sit still (you had to give me a book). So I try to use that ethos as an adult - if I'm not working or reading, I'm moving. Sometimes I'll move while I work (thank you speech to words software) . Sorry I've gone on, this is a big chunk of what my undergrad was about, and l'm definitely invested in getting everyone moving more. Okay, I'll stop now!

Oh man, r/gradschool is great, as is r/gradadmissions and r/askacademia. Loads of interesting information on there. I mean I also like r/awww and r/backpackingdogs (some of the most beautiful dogs and scenery ever on that one).

I'm definitely feeling apprehensive about hearing from schools now. One of my lecturers graduated from my top choice (in 1999), in the PhD I want to do, and it doesn't help that he puts photos and videos from there on his lecture slides, saunts around in the university's apparel and generally seems to inadvertently rub it in my face that I haven't heard from there. 2-3 more(ish) weeks I expect. (it's totally fine to get to the end of admissions season without fingernails right?)

[Yunix]

35 minutes ago, piglet33 said:

it's totally fine to get to the end of admissions season without fingernails right?

Haha this! Fingernails are for the weak

[rosali]

@piglet33 No, I appreciate it! The weather's unseasonably warm this week, so I've been walking to and from work when I can, which is great. Exercise itself isn't a chore, just getting myself started is. Once I'm working out, I'm like "why was I resisting this? This is great!" because making my body do things/seeing progress is really satisfying, but dragging myself out of the house after a day of teaching can be really hard.

@Neist Yeah, from what I'd heard, Oklahoma is just a big flat plain, but that's obviously not the case! I moved from the city to a tiiiiiiiiiny little place in the mountains this year, so I'm learning to appreciate all the things you can do on/in the mountains. Because there's really not much else here haha.

In other news, I just found out I'm going to be in one of my favorite places in the world (Granada, Spain) when my decisions start coming out, so at least I'll be somewhere I love either to celebrate good news or to cry into my tapas over bad news.

[hippyscientist]

Just now, rosali said:

Once I'm working out, I'm like "why was I resisting this? This is great!" because making my body do things/seeing progress is really satisfying, but dragging myself out of the house after a day of teaching can be really hard.

In other news, I just found out I'm going to be in one of my favorite places in the world (Granada, Spain) when my decisions start coming out, so at least I'll be somewhere I love either to celebrate good news or to cry into my tapas over bad news.

Okay so that's where training before work comes in  Also make it a date. I always schedule in my gym time, it's an appointment/meeting with myself and my fitness. If you like training with people (I don't most of the time), you can replace a coffee date with a workout - or if that doesn't appeal maybe a hike or a climbing session or something. 

And oooohhh Granada is lovely! Excellent wine and food to celebrate (let's think positive!). 

 

Ugh, I need to go read papers but I've been incredibly lazy so far this morning. Time to get a wriggle on.

[rosali]

@piglet33 Fair enough. Time to stop making excuses and start getting up early and doing things! I feel you on the lazy morning, though. I got up a couple hours before I had to be at work and instead of planning more lessons or being productive, I drank a lot of coffee and finished the book I'm reading. Not unproductive, but not especially productive either.

[gingin6789]

First day of the new semester for me... All I'm doing as a Master's student (in her final semester) are thesis credits, but as a TA for the Intro to Soc class, I get to meet my students today! :-D

[artsy16]

6 hours ago, piglet33 said:

@rosali working out every day isn't good for you! Do scheduled exercise (like gym/swim) 3 or 4 days a week and the rest just throw in active recovery. Things like yoga, hiking, heck putting on music and having a good old dance while you clean. The trick is to move, it doesn't have to be a chore, and the more exercise is a chore the worse habits you'll get in to. When were kids, being told to go outside and play was the best thing ever, and it was almost impossible to get me to sit still (you had to give me a book). So I try to use that ethos as an adult - if I'm not working or reading, I'm moving. Sometimes I'll move while I work (thank you speech to words software) . Sorry I've gone on, this is a big chunk of what my undergrad was about, and l'm definitely invested in getting everyone moving more. Okay, I'll stop now!

I never understood this, because athletes work out everyday/6 days a week. When I played varsity sports in HS, our only day off was Sundays. My D1 athlete friends practice multiple times a day, 6-7 days a week. The workouts vary of course, but they certainly aren't anything as relaxing as yoga

 

I made it through my first interview day/weekend! Now back to school to take care of all the responsibilities I put off. 

Edited January 26, 2016 by artsy16

[hippyscientist]

@artsy16 that's cool because athletes have worked up to that tolerance. Also, look at their careers. More often than not, a professional athlete is done by the time they're 30, overuse injuries galore and with a whole host of problems. Any athlete will have an off-season which is time for their body to recover. To non-athletes, this might seem like insane levels of training still, but to an elite performer who has trained many times a day, many days a week they will be reduced, lower-intensity sessions. For the average public person, "training" 4 times a week plus staying active and moving throughout the day is going to be much more sustainable and better for their long-term health. Athletes work completely differently (and are incredibly interesting!). A lot of my research is on the differences between elite and recreational athletes, as well as those living sedentary lifestyles, and often the mechanics differ as well as physiological tolerance (and I'm not going to touch on the psychological aspects because that's too far out of my comfort zone!). 

Congratulations on making it through interview week!