One term down... threeve to go.

The subject is an SNL Celebrity Jeopardy reference... but I digress.

Anyway, I did it. What did I do you might ask? I survived my first term as a PhD student at the great University of Oregon. What do I get in return. Other than being able to see my family a lot more over the next month, I get to do it all over again in January. Only this time it will be exponentially more difficult. This term I only had 2 classes, 2 seminars and 2 labs that I TA'd. For spring term I have the exact same thing, except for three slight changes.

First, I will be running my own study (effect of PFO on core temperature during exercise... basically if you have a hole in your heart does that increase your body temperature during exercise. If you want to find out if you have a hole in your heart and/or you want to find out what your VO2max is, let me know. The great thing is you will get paid to do my study!). Thankfully my study is relatively simple, but we are trying to get a bunch of people to participate.

Second, the classes I will be taking are much more difficult, well at least one of them will be more difficult.  I know this because I will be taking the advanced respiratory physiology class the term before I take the intermediate respiratory physiology class. How smart is that?

Finally, my wonderful advisor from CSUF and I are wrapping up getting my thesis in manuscript form. We are hoping to have that done by my birthday in February. That would be a pretty sweet 35th birthday present.

What does this mean. I will be spending time in my little office/dungeon for most of the 10 weeks starting on January 9th. I wonder how that post will turn out?

Anyway, getting back to my original topic - Fall Term 2011. It was an absolute blast. I love what I am doing, I love what I am learning, I love the people I am working with, I love my new friends, I love having a dungeon of my own, and I love being in Oregon. More than anything I love being able to come home every night to a woman who completely and utterly spoils me. I wonder how long it will be before she realizes that I am the one that married up. :)

I can honestly say I have never worked such long hours as I did this term. If you have seen my gpa, you will know I didn't do a whole lot of work at BYU. I definitely never worked this hard when I was with Maintenance Warehouse in San Diego. I had moments of working this hard when I was at SDSU, but that was more like a day here, and a day here, and only in combination with having a full-time job. Progressive had its moments, but they paid ridiculous amounts of money for an easy job (No wonder they laid off a ton of people). My Masters' program was difficult at times, but that was because I was going through a divorce, trying to be a parent to Ellie, and too many really long weekend trips. However, the demand wasn't insane as I was able to get through the program in about 18 months. Oh how my life has changed...

Generally speaking, when school is in session I am here from 7:00ish until 6:00ish Monday-Friday. To date, although I know this will soon change, I have yet to come to school on a Saturday, especially since I can' t use the Farmers Market as an excuse to not go up to school.

So how I am surviving this craziness? It's rather simple... my family, my faith, running, mini road trips, and my friends. The good food we eat most nights doesn't hurt either. Seriously though, there are some people who thought I was crazy to marry a girl just over six months after I met her on December 31, 2010 (That's right I haven't even known Micha for a year yet), and then somehow convince her to move a thousand miles away from her parents, friends, newly purchased house, and job. Hopefully she never comes to her senses, because I know having her here with me has made this journey a lot more fun, and a lot easier to handle.

So until I ramble further, have a most excellent Christmas season.