That Time My Mom Broke Her Foot

So I've not been blogging lately, (in case you haven't noticed), but last week was busy and then I spent last weekend in St. Paul with my mom and brother. Even better, I had this Monday and Tuesday off, so we could stay a little longer! We had a good time in St. Paul.

Apparently, my mom had so much fun, she decided to extend her vacation and come back home with me until the end of the week. She kept talking about raking and painting and whatnot (she always says those kinds of things), but I really urged her to relax and watch movies and knit and read her book, as I would be away at work and couldn't help with all that nonsense.

She didn't listen.

Yesterday, she was doing a little raking and pruning the roses in my flower bed when she stepped back out of the bed, onto the grass, which is slightly sloped toward the driveway. The way she tells it, she sort of slipped out of her clog-like (open back) tennis shoes, and twisted and landed on the side of her foot. And heard a crack. Thankfully she went in the house, put her foot up, iced it, and immediately took ibuprofen, instead of continuing with the gardening.

Meanwhile, I'm plugging away at work and decide to call my mom during lunch. Here's what that conversation was like:

M: "Hello?"
H: "Hi Mom, what're you doing?"
M: "Oh, just sitting and watchin' a movie."
H: "Oh good, that sounds nice."
M: "Yeah. What are you doing? How come you're calling me?"
H: "I'm eating lunch and thought I'd call to see how your day was going and what you were up to."
M: "Oh. (pause)  Listen, I may or may not have broken my foot today."
H: (long pause) "You what?"
M: "I may or may not have broken my foot. I'm sitting with it elevated and on ice."
H: "What did you do?"
Mom proceeds to tell me the whole story in vivid detail. And assures me that it's "probably just a sprain. That one time, I sprained my foot in three places and it cracked then too!"
H: "Well do you need me to come home? I should come home."
M: "Noooo you need to be at work, you're the only one there today. Besides, I'm fine. I'm not bleeding. I really wasn't even going to tell you, but I figured you'd have a heart attack when you came home and saw me like this."
H: "Well I'm glad you told me and that you're icing it. Just sit still. I mean it!"
At this point, my dear mother says she will sit with her foot up, which I have a hard time believing. We discuss me coming home and I tell her I think we should probably go to urgent care/emergency room or something. But then I pause because she was there in September with a rib injury and I was nervous the ER people thought I abused my mother then...two visits really wouldn't help matters. Plus, she has a semi-recent shoulder injury that she's been taking medication for....

For the record, I don't abuse my mother.

Anyway, I left work early and took my mother to the emergency room. They x-rayed her foot and found a very clear break that was actually nicely set already. She got a shoe to wear, was told to stay off it, and to follow-up with her doc at home. They didn't accuse me of abusing my mother (thank goodness).

And yet, all my mom could talk about was not being able to finish the rose bush! Oy.

Here's wishing you a good weekend with no broken bones!

Dissertation Nation

The big day is a week away! I've been trying to work on my presentation and prepare for my defense, but I've been so tired and distracted. Work has been nuts lately and needless to say, (but I'm sayin' it anyway) I have a lot on my mind!

Anyway, my PowerPoint slides are coming along very slowly but I need to speed it up a bit- Lee wants to see them soon. I need to sit down and read my full dissertation as part of my preparation ... you would think that I would know that thing inside and out, but it's amazing how quickly the small details escape you when you've been working on something for years. Literally. Years. It does give me some small sense of accomplishment to see that stack of paper sitting on my table (and a sense of sadness for destroying so many trees in the process).

I know this research isn't going to save all of humankind or bring about world peace or anything. Heck, I know that few people will ever read it in its current form! But I do hope that I can take what I've learned and share it and/or use it (perhaps at my fantastic new job). It's turned out to be an OK project, though I would've done some things differently had I been able.

A couple of people have recently told me that their dissertation defenses were "anticlimactic". I can see how it could feel that way, though I've taken the long, winding, bumpy road to this place (sometimes not by choice) and so I am guessing I will feel a sense of relief and pride when all is said and done. I'll probably call my mom crying again, to tell her the good news.

When I defended my Master's thesis, someone told me, "Heidi, just enjoy this experience today. This is your work. You really do know the most about your work. So savor this moment. Enjoy it. Have some fun." Now, it may seem difficult to associate fun with presenting your research to highly educated individuals who are there to question, critique, and judge your hard work, but I did enjoy and savor that moment. I felt like I was able to sit down with colleagues and talk about research and education and I enjoyed it.

I plan to do the same with my dissertation.