The insanity of moving during finals week

It rarely becomes so difficult to write in my journal that I miss a day. But I’ve missed the last two days! Let me see if I can explain why.

Tuesday morning, I got to the Animal Science building on campus around 8:30 am so that I could study before grading finals. Grading finals went from 9:30 am to 6:00 pm. At that time I left the grading crew so that I could go home and help load the moving van. When I was about to leave, I turned around and smiled at everyone. They wished me luck on my internship and said goodbye. The last thing Dave said to me: “Don’t get hired!” One of the best compliments ever.

I gathered some things around the house while Karen and her mom and Rich went to Little Caesar’s to get some pizzas for the movers. Around 6:45, members of the ward started showing up to help. I thought it would go really fast, but the 14-foot truck was a tighter fit for everything than I initially thought. After putting things in and taking them out and adjusting how things fit together, we had it all ready to go around 9:00 or 9:30. The plan was to keep the mattresses in the apartment so we could sleep for the night, but that seemed like less and less of a good idea, so we grabbed a hotel in town.

By the time we were situated and Rich was in bed, it was about 11:00 pm. I studied for my finals until about 11:50 pm, at which point I went to bed. But Rich cried all night! So I got about three hours of sleep. And wouldn’t you know it—we looked out the window Wednesday morning to find thick snow coming down! Karen took me to campus and I, somehow with enough energy to be there, took my two finals. Karen’s mom picked me up from campus so we could check out of our hotel and then check out of our apartment and then hit the road.

We stopped in Ontario for the night, which was great. Unfortunately, Rich refused to sleep unless he was on top of me, so I held him until about 7:00 am, at which point he noticed he was near his mom as well, so he was okay with sleeping between us (not what he normally does). We hit the road again this morning and finally arrived in Portland around 6:00 pm. We are relieved.

A compliment from a friend

Vahan Petrosyan, one of Dave’s recitation leaders and a good friend of mine, paid me a great compliment today. I crossed paths with him and his girlfriend Ying in the engineering building today. The first thing he said had to do with Exam P.

VAHAN: How did you do?

ME: I passed!

Vahan smiled and gave me a high five.

VAHAN: That’s great!

ME: Yeah!

I hadn’t talked with Ying before.

YING: I do the review sessions for your probability class.

ME: Oh, yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever been to one of those.

VAHAN: Well you obviously don’t need it.

YING: Vahan told me that there was a super smart guy in that class.

ME: Thanks, Vahan!

I love compliments. I should give them more often, because they feel so good. Vahan has passed the first two actuarial exams, as has Ying, so they are both geniuses. Very cool.

Rubbing shoulders at a picnic

As a family, we attended the annual Math/Stat Fall Picnic in a local park this evening. I noticed that the original email announcing the picnic was sent to 128 of us and that we were encouraged to bring family, friends, etc., but I actually saw a flyer on the wall today that said it was for faculty, staff, and grad students. When I saw the flyer, I had to stop and think for a moment. Why was I included in the email? I’m not—. And then I realized that I am considered staff because I am an instructor for a stats recitation course.

Karen got to meet Matt, my differential equations instructor from this summer, and we got to meet his wife and kids.

MATT to KAREN: Tyler is one of the best students I’ve ever had. No, he actually is the best. I have never been asked so many questions by one student before. He knows me better than I know myself.

Of course, how do you respond to something like that? I was embarrassed for a moment.

MATT: I mean, you know what his grade was. What was his grade?

KAREN: (slight hesitation) It was a 4.0!

MATT: Exactly!

On our way to finding a table, we passed by two of my three teachers this semester, both of which were seated together—Yan Sun, my probability teacher; and Guifang Fu, my linear regression teacher. Guifang was very surprised to see me, so she stopped us.

GUIFANG: What is your name again?

ME: Tyler.

GUIFANG: I didn’t know you were part of our department. What do you do?

ME: Yeah, I’m a recitation leader for Stat 2300.

GUIFANG: Oh, so you’re part of our department, then?

ME: Yep!

Guifang and Yan spoke with us for a bit as they met Karen and Rich. Guifang tried to say hi to Rich, but he cried—his general response to every stranger tonight.

It was kind of weird seeing my current professors in attendance at the dinner because...they’re my current professors. But it was awesome! We enjoyed getting to know a few people better, and I think it was good for me to be exposed more to the amazing faculty and staff of the Math/Stat department. There were probably 60-ish people in attendance.

And finally, a job!

I received an email at about 4:00 pm yesterday that gave details about a few recitation leader openings for some math and stats classes. If you remember, my recitation leader for Stat 3000 this last spring was Xi, and she basically attended lecture and taught a kind of TA class where she helped us with homework and reviewed lecture material. Well, so I responded to the email at about 8:00 pm, just before Karen and I left the church building to go home from our meetings. And then this morning, maybe around noon, I received an email saying that I'd been hired!

Amazing, right? I definitely didn’t see that coming. Like any normal person, I expected an interview if I was to be considered, but instead I received an email stating that I was hired. Just like that!

The original email explained that they were looking for students who are senior math or stats majors, and I told Dr. Turner (the woman in charge) that I am a transfer student and that I have only 4000 and 5000 level courses left in my major, and I said something about how I hoped my having no concrete student status didn’t disqualify me.

I mentioned to Karen the possibility of being a recitation leader on the way to the church building yesterday evening, and Karen thought it was a great idea. She said that while I’m not a senior, maybe I’d have a chance, and that it doesn’t hurt to apply. So yes, we are very excited.