I miss my boy!!

I sent Isaac off to his grandma's house today so that I can concentrate on finishing my thesis. It was a good plan - he needs to visit his grandma before we leave for eight months - and I need to work - but I can't stop thinking about him!! I'm too much of a smother-mother and I'm having withdrawal.

Speaking of my thesis, I got my data last night, and it went pretty well. I'm done transcribing everything, and now I'm trying to put it into a coherent narrative. It's not as easy as I thought it would be...Not to mention that I'm at home and I keep getting up for a drink, for a jolly rancher, for a walk, for the bathroom, for a blog...it's that procrastination problem I have. But hopefully I'll be able to buckle down and get it done in time!

I'm considering becoming a jogger. Today on my walk, I decided to run about half of the way. All was well until I almost passed out. I really thought I was in pretty good shape - all that excercising I've been doing has paid off, but I guess I'm no Marion Jones yet. It's like my body does not obey my brain - I was telling it to breathe and move my feet but it just locked up. I don't even think what I was doing was jogging - it was more like hoppish walking.

Well, time to get back to "data analysis". Oh fun.

More Pictures

This could easily become an obsession, I'm sure.
Here are some more pictures which I found worthy of the online world.

First off, we have some of the photography of Isaac Zaman, who uses his small stature to give his audience a look at the world from his point of view. The first photo, which took the subject by surprise, is entitled "Masud says 'Huh?'".



Next, we move on to a portrait of the artist's mother, who can usually be found sitting behind the computer.



Now we see some portraits of the artist himself. Notice how he artfully poses and takes directions from the photographer. The first photograph in this series resulted from the direction of "Give me a cute pose!"



The next photo was obtained by instructing the subject to "Do Something."




Sometimes, my son likes to go back to his roots, and walks around in freezing temperatures wearing nothing but his Loongi.



He often joins his father in the driveway to watch the cars go by. Notice his chair - we brought it back from the village in Bangladesh. He loves that stupid chair.

Let's add some pictures, shall we?

Since sharing my experiences will be greatly enhanced by images, I thought I better practice posting pictures. These are old because my digital camera has no batteries, but they work for testing anyways...

Here is Isaac looking Oh So Cute on Eid in Bangladesh. This is the one and only time I got him to wear this outfit. He says he's too shy.


And here I am pretending to graduate this spring...


And here I am in Bangladesh saluting the picture taker...


And here I am again...I puked about 30 seconds after this picture was taken. Food poisoning is not a fun addition to a three hour bus ride in a third world country. NASTY!!!


Well, that's enough for today. This takes a little longer than I thought it would, but I hope it's worth it!

Another day, another blog

I'm at one of those points where I have a lot to do in the coming days, but at the moment I have nothing to work on. I'm all ready to collect my research data on Tuesday, and I've updated my first three chapters of my thesis, so that all I have left to do is write chs. 4 and 5. Of course, I can't write them until I have the data. Hurry up and wait syndrome, I guess. So I'm sitting in the library, checking my email, checking eBay, randomly surfing around, and then I remembered my blogs!

Ahhh, Minnesota. The weather is so weird, last night it dropped down to the 40's, and now it's a gorgeous sunny day. I would be sitting outside if it wasn't for the gusting winds. I think Mankato is in a wind tunnel. It's so windy sometimes that Isaac almost gets swept away. He's so darn light, like a bird.

I read somewhere that children under 35 lbs. are not supposed to take the malaria preventing Mefloquine which we are required to take in Bangladesh. I wonder how that will work out. I'm hoping I can fatten him up enough so that he can take it. Right now he weighs 33.4 lbs. so I need to add another 1.6 lbs. in order for him to be safe. It took me a whole year to get him to gain 3.4 lbs. I hope that it won't affect the medical clearance decision! I can't live without him for eight months!

Last night Masud and Isaac were fighting, and it got a little rough, and Isaac "accidentally" scraped some skin off of Masud's arm. You would have thought Masud was bleeding to death, the way he started howling. Isaac ran right into the bathroom and got his first aid kit - blue antiseptic and Spiderman bandaids. Masud got some superior medical treatment, and I'm happy to say that he's recovering from his wound. Maybe Isaac will be a doctor someday. Hey, I can hope, can't I? He's finally starting to become interested in letters and words, so that's good progress towards getting him into medical school!

From now on, I decided that I'm going to carry my digital camera around and take pictures of everyone I know, so that I can remember them while I'm gone. Cheesy, I know, but I'm such a sap. I'm not so afraid of being homesick any more, mostly because I'm starting to realize how busy I'll be and how interesting the whole experience will be. Those 8 months will be up before I know it!

Getting my feet wet...

So I've been thinking about doing this for a while, but have never had the courage. It's a little scary - I'm afraid that I'll let slip some deep, private thought, and then direct all my friends and family to read it. But it will probably come in handy while I'm overseas...it will be an easy way to keep everyone updated on my life without doing those weird mass-email things. I guess I better get used to it.

Right now I'm not even thinking about going to Bangladesh. Well, that's a lie, it's always floating around somewhere in my head, but it's in the background. I'm concentrating 100% on finishing my Thesis (with a capital "T"). I never would have guessed that it would be such an uphill battle to collect some data! I've been trying since JANUARY, and here it is, almost July, with my deadline screaming down my neck. I've finally found a helpful person who is willing to do whatever it takes to make this happen. I'm actually learning a great lesson in flexibility and rolling with the punches, something which I'm told is very useful in the real world, and one of those traits that I lack.

I've been going to school every day, and Isaac bravely goes to daycare so that I can study. He realizes that he's helping me by going to school. Since he started going full time, he's been surprisingly happy there. Maybe the routine is good for him, I'm not sure. But it makes it easier for me just knowing that he's having a good time.

My weight loss struggle continues, this month my "Curves printout" said that I lost a whopping 3 lbs. of body fat. That is more than I lost in the last 4 months combined! If only I could lose the "Devil's Snare" that's wrapped around my waist. Ahhhh, dreams.

I'm being instructed to do something useful. Apparently blogging is not useful. More next time...