Sarah Jane Humke

Snapshot: My Office

Sarah Jane Humke

September 21, 2012

Here at Iowa State, much like at other US universities, graduate students often get an office in which to work. The higher of a rank of grad student that you are the more elaborate the office usually. In my case, I actually share an office with four other people. Two of whom I’ve yet to see. As you can imagine, this makes for a very utilitarian office space.

I don’t want anyone to think that I am complaining. Far from it! I initially didn’t think that I was going to be getting a desk at all so the fact that I have this little haven on campus is fantastic! I’ve also seen some other graduate student offices and this one is considered spacious and positively posh by the standards of that department. To give you an idea, it was so tight in that office that in order for one person to get out of their seat, the person behind them had to scoot all the way in under their desk. This office by comparison has lots of space, A/C, a printer, and a little tiny fridge to stash Mountain Dews in!

My desk is right by the window which I adore. Not only is this prime houseplant position, but it also makes it easy to work without a light on.

Anyone who knows me well would be able to identify that desk as mine. Why?

African violets on the windowsill. Mountain Dew on the desk. And sheep on top of the computer. The subway cup ironically is not mine exactly. I fished it out of the garbage and use it to water the violets.

Some may ask why we get offices at all. Well, a lot of graduate students in US universities help professors teach undergraduate classes. It is a sort of training to become professors themselves. As such, they are required to have office hours where students can seek them out for assistance with the class. It would be really rather unprofessional to have students meet you at your apartment or home or some random place on campus. This is also part of the reason why doctoral candidates get better digs than we do. Often they are actually teaching classes entirely. Plus they are just higher up on the food chain!

I hope to do more snapshots of my life like this. I know that a lot of people have never gotten a good look into a modern US university and have no idea what life is like in one. So I want to share just little snapshots of what “normal” looks like from my view!

Proof

Sarah Jane Humke

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September 19, 2012

Here is the proof that I have promised many of you.

I give you… pictures of my cheerleading years!

And as an added bonus… My senior picture with me in my FFA uniform!

*The first two photos were by Kent Larson, the last was from Voss Studios. Please forgive the quality of all of them. They are (ahem) old and I scanned them into the computer.

A Morning Ramble Around Central Campus

Sarah Jane Humke

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September 18, 2012

This is what my world looks like right now.

Making me Laugh (Canine Edition)

Sarah Jane Humke

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September 17, 2012

I keep Dog Shaming up on my computer at all times. It’s amazing just how many different things dogs will eat! They update it throughout the day so you can keep up with what infractions are going down at all times.

This comic by The Oatmeal made me laugh so hard the dog barked at me. Which made me laugh harder.

Meara’s utter disdain for the AAAE regional conference proceedings that I have spent so much time today ignoring her in favor of.

What’s making you smile today?

Loom Fairy

Sarah Jane Humke

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September 16, 2012

Whenever I was at my guild meetings and I would say, usually by way of introducing myself, that I spin, knit and crochet and that I don’t weave. At which point there was usually a chorus of “yet!” added to it. I didn’t figure that this was really going to happen as I’m not in a position to spend hundreds of dollars on a loom, and I don’t live close enough to the guild hall to go there and use their looms easily.

However, the loom fairy had other ideas about when I was going to learn how to weave. She was up there giggling and clapping her hands in anticipation of today…

Yep, that is a full-sized (though not as heavy as I would’ve thought) working loom in the living room of my parents house. A friend of my mom’s needed a new home for it so it is on permanent loan to us.

Well played loom fairy, well played.

Little Surprises

Sarah Jane Humke

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September 13, 2012

One of the things that is most fun about being in school again is the little surprises that you encounter on a daily basis. Directly outside the building my office is in is what they call “central campus”. It’s an enormous green patch with the campanile and a few trees, but mostly grass. It was here that they held President Obama’s speech and where there are frequently concerts and the like. I knew that today the university was having a luncheon-type thing for the installation of the newest president of the university as I had seen it in the paper. I remembered it as there was free food (I know, I am becoming such a student!) so I wasn’t too surprised about the marquee that went up and the activity for it getting set-up. However, when I came out of the building after finishing my lunch, I was a little surprised to see an entire pep band blaring away complete with cheerleaders, baton twirlers and a set of flag wavers cheering and playing to the crowd of very unimpressed students waiting in line for their free lunch.

One of the things that caught my attention was just how loud the cheerleaders pom-poms were. I don’t remember them being that loud when I was a cheerleader in high school!

In completely unrelated news (to the pep squad at least) I got my hair cut this week. It was the first week where it was consistently cool enough that I could wear my hair down and not get totally sweaty. As I was wearing it down, I realized how long it had gotten and took measures to correct it. I was also procrastinating finishing a paper. I also tidied my room.

Last weekend I had to fulfill one of my main duties as the Vice President of the Weavers and Spinners Guild which was have the member booklets put together by the time the meeting started on Saturday. With some help from CopyWorks here in Ames and editing assistance from members of the board as well as some actual assembly help from them as well, they were finished. The covers were made by another member of the guild and are just adorable. She used actual yarn on the spindles so it came in all sorts of colors!

Now, with knitting content!

Sarah Jane Humke

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September 3, 2012

I’ve not written a lot about my knitting and crocheting lately for a couple of reasons. First is that a lot of my crafting lately has been for others, others who sometimes read the blog. It’s not like they aren’t already pretty sure what they are getting already (cough… baby blankets) but still, I like to at least pretend that there is a little suspense in it otherwise why would I even bother wrapping them? Oh, wait, often I don’t wrap them… Hmmm… Anyway, I am finally working on something that I know the recipient doesn’t read this at all. Yes, this is the beginning of Christmas knitting!

I’m knitting a pair of plain socks with 72 stitches cast-on in Regia City Color sock yarn. Details are here in Ravelry.

I have a sweater that has been sidelined for the moment due to gauge issues. That and I’m a little bit too chicken to continue. The yarn is really nice and the sweater isn’t for me so I’m kinda doubly afraid of messing it up. Oddly, I don’t usually ever have this issue with high-end lace yarns, but then gauge isn’t as important when making a shawl (usually) as when making a sweater. Any suggestions about how to get over this fear and just get on with it would be greatly appreciated! Especially since the sweater is deadline knitting with a date that is fast approaching!

However, the sock is my easy to transport knitting for the moment. I worked on dishcloths all summer long as I just couldn’t bear to even think about wool too hard let along touch it in daily temps of over 90 degrees Fahrenheit. With an un-air-conditioned car. Working in greenhouses. Yeah, it was a sweaty summer for me! Anyway, handling wool when it’s that hot on a regular basis just wasn’t happening much this summer. I guess that a little work got done on the sock yarn blanket while in my A/C’ed apartment, but not much else.

I’d forgotten how fast socks can go! It’s really remarkable how much I’ve gotten done in a short amount of time. I may become a sock knitter yet! (May the knitting Gods help us all!!!)

The Tomatoes are Running!

Sarah Jane Humke

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September 2, 2012

One of the many things that has been keeping me busy in the past few weeks is the sudden deluge of tomatoes that we’ve had on the farm. So far, I’ve canned about 25 pints of pasta sauce and 14 pints of salsa. I also canned about a dozen pints of green beans, but those weren’t from our garden.

Things I have learned about canning:

-You are gonna get burnt, just deal with it.

-You are going to make a big fat mess.

-It’s really fraking hot.

-It’s good to have a really nice roommate when doing it (Thanks Des!).

The majority of the tomatoes that I planted this spring were Roma or Roma-type tomatoes. Is that what we’ve mainly gotten thus far? Probably if you looked at it from a pounds standpoint, but as the designated tomato picker in the house, it seems like all I’ve picked for the last 2 months are little cherry type tomatoes. It’s all been about the little yellow pear ones or the longish little red ones or the proper little cherry tomatoes. It is a pain to cut-up 6 pounds of little tomatoes to make into salsa (though it is tasty!).

Anyway, this is a selection of what I picked today. There are still TONS of green tomatoes on the Roma plants which is kinda starting to scare me a little bit. I think that they are all waiting for me to turn my back on them and then ripen all at the same time. I think even my wonderful roommate might be a put-out if I came back to Ames with 2 or 3 bushels of tomatoes!

These are the “ripe and ready” group from today.

These are the “not quite ripe but ripe enough to pick as the grasshoppers will eat them by next week” group.

And this is the “little guys and peppers” selection. After my whingeing, it seems like a really small number but I assure you, there are usually a lot more!

Happy Bruchetta-ing to you too!

Back to School

Sarah Jane Humke

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August 31, 2012

The past 2 weeks have been hectic here as I get back into the rhythm of classes on campus. I was also given a “surprise” assistant ship which means that I hadn’t been expecting it at all and threw a massive wrench into the workings of my first week back in school. However, I am immensely grateful to all of the professors and staff who worked really hard to put it together for me. You see, I am probably going to have about 6 bosses. The money for my assistant ship is coming from a plethora of sources and they all get a few hours of me a week. It’s not a “standard” assistant ship and I know that it took a lot of work and finagling for it to come about the way that it did.

I’ve only been part of the department a few weeks now, but I already feel sort-of part of it. I have a desk assigned to me which I hadn’t expected. I’m learning who to talk to about what. In many ways, it’s a lot like starting a new job. Really, in a way, it is a new job. For the next few years, my priority is on learning, not on producing, but it’s just as measurable what with a semester-ly reports of my progress in the form of grades:-)

This last week of school has been a tad more difficult due to two things. First off, I got the summer cold/sinus infection that has been going around. How do I know that it’s going around? Just take a listen in my psych 230 class at all the coughing and honking of noses and you can tell that it’s making the rounds. Anyway, I’ve been trying to avoid as much extra stuff as I can just to give me a little time to recover and rest. My first time at Iowa State, I had a cold/cough that kept popping back up week after week for over a semester. I guess that one of the advantages of age is understanding that if you push yourself too hard while you are still sick you don’t get better. No matter how many wonder drugs you pump yourself full of, the things we need most are time and rest.

The other thing that made my week a little more complicated was that the Iowa State campus had a visit from a sitting President. Yep. President Obama stood outside my building and gave a speech to more than 6000 people on Tuesday. This meant that Curtiss Hall (where my department is housed) was essentially closed from Monday afternoon until Tuesday evening as the Secret Service had to do checks for bombs and other security measures prior to the President’s visit. They also closed streets around campus making the bus schedules a little wonky. Tuesday I was still feeling really unwell, so I just got to my class in the morning and tried to stay off campus the rest of the day. There were helicopters flying overhead the entire time that the President was in Ames (he arrived on Marine One from Des Moines where Air Force One landed). I wish that I could have gone, but given that it was quite hot that day, I’m really glad that I didn’t (see above: rest).

I haven’t taken any photos of my campus yet. Just wait, I’ve been itching to get my camera there and take some pictures to share with y’all. It’s a really beautiful campus and I honestly cannot wait to share it with all of you!

College Life-Moving

Sarah Jane Humke

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August 19, 2012

One of the things that I seem to remember about college the first time around was all the moves that I made. In about a year and a half, I moved 5 times. Which isn’t even a lot for some students. I remember one girl telling me that she moved 5 times her first year in school as she couldn’t get along with any of her roommates (at what point do you start wondering if it isn’t actually them and is really you???). So, this week is my first move. I know that I will have at least 1 more in the coming 2 years as this move is only until the end of the Spring semester. I don’t know if I will have to find another place in Ames for the summer because I don’t know if I am taking summer classes or not (I’m hoping towards not, so I can work over the summer and not pay rent).

So, since I have to be ready to move out of my current apartment by Tuesday at 9:30 am I have lots of crates of stuff stacked in my room currently. I have sorted things that I will need in this new place (Meara’s crate and treats and such, she’s moving with me!) from things that I don’t need (dishes and the like for example, it comes with a fully kitted-out kitchen). Yesterday afternoon, I went over to my storage unit and wrestled 2 of my (many, many, many, many) bookshelves out complete with the shelves that fit in them. I’m not certain that they will both fit in the new place, but it was easier to get them both out now rather than just get one and try to get the other one out later. I’m not taking a huge amount of furniture with me. It’s a little bedroom and there is already a dresser and a desk there. Just a twin bed, the bookshelves, a fan, a bedside stand, and Meara’s crate. I may take a trunk later if there is still space, but that can always fit in the car. I’ve got black, plastic crates that look like these (though not nearly so colorful) that should fit under my bed to store things like out of season clothes and extra supplies. For those interested, I got the crates for $1.99 each at a local garden center. They get their bare-root perennials shipped in them and then sell the crates in the spring and summer. They are cheap and seriously strong and great for things in the garden or the workshop too! I will take a picture when I get everything set-up. Hopefully.

However, before I can enjoy the excitement of moving into a new place I have to finish with the drudgery of getting out of the old place. I have gone through an entire can of Pledge furniture polish cleaning all the wooden surfaces in the apartment. I’m about half-way through the second one at this point! I’ve scrubbed the tub and shower and blitzed the oven interior and even pledged the inside and outside of all the cabinets in the place. I still need to do floors both vacuuming and mopping, as well as the windows (there aren’t that many of those luckily). But the biggest issue is getting the couch out! My roommate left in a hurry (long story, but not bad in any way) and now the behemoth is mine and I have to figure out how to get it out of here… Sigh.

The next week:

I’m now moved into my new place. Meara and her new roomie (a little boy dog) are getting along remarkably well. England was good for chilling her the heck out. Before England (B.E.) this move wouldn’t have gone well at all with her getting seriously bent out of shape by a strange dog being in her space. Now, as long as he doesn’t take her bone or try to get on the bed when she’s there, she could really care less. Which is good. As I write, he’s camped-out under the desk between my feet and she’s snoozing on the bed in front of the fan. My new room is a little smaller than the one that I moved from, but I get to have Meara here, so an ok trade in my opinion. Here’s what the room looks like.

Yes, I use a bookshelf for a headboard for my bed. The lower shelves that are covered by the bed are used for spare blankets and things that don’t get used very often. I can still get to them pretty easily as it is only a twin bed.

I really prefer to be able to look out a window when I am at a desk. I’ve brought a much better chair since I took this picture.

The dresser matching the bookshelves wasn’t planned, but it worked out well. Meara’s crate is at the foot of my bed and now my spinning wheel is behind it (not in this photo obviously).

The desk and dresser both came with the room and everything else is mine. The room is on the North-East side of the house, so I have good, but not overpowering sunshine. I really like having morning sun as I think it helps me to wake the heck up!