KK’s Blog

I don’t know if anyone reads this blog anymore, since I mainly write on the wedding blog now, but I have some non-wedding news, believe it or not. On Friday, I was informed that I got a raise, so starting Monday, I will make more money! I will also get a bonus, though I’m not sure how much that will be yet, and it will be prorated based on the time I’ve been here. Our Performance Excellence Process just had the annual review, and I got a very good review from my boss on my performance. So I get to make more money! Yay! Stuart, my boss, said I exceeded all his expectations, but now I set his expectations higher for this year, so it’s going to be harder to impress him. More work for me. But I am still enjoying my job, as long as I’m kept busy. I guess that does have an effect on wedding stuff, since I’ll have a little more money to spend. But it’s just exciting news that I thought I would put up on this blog instead.

By the way, if you went to our website before it got redone, and now you try to go to it, and it gives an error or something, then clear our your cookies, and it should be fine. I found this out when I couldn’t get to the website from my computer at work. So if anyone else has discovered this, hopefully clearing out the cookies will solve all your problems.

While I will still be updating this blog for my own life, Kyle and I have a new blog for wedding planning blog entries. And a whole site, actually, though not everything is filled in yet. So go to www.kyleandcaitlan.com/blog.html for our blog or go to www.kyleandcaitlan.com for our whole website and click on blog to get to it. And feel free to navigate through the rest of the site too. We’ll be updating it throughout our engagement, and it will be where our wedding details will be posted. Yay!!

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I went to Oxford for my graduation. On Saturday, I went through the ceremony with a bunch of Latin. I swore I wouldn’t disgrace the university or anything, and I got to wear a furry hood.

On Thursday night, I had some more excitement. Kyle proposed, and I said yes. So I am now engaged. We haven’t discussed details yet, but now I have something exciting to write about in my blog again, so I will try to keep it updated. I’ll put up pictures soon, and tell the story in more detail.

So now I am not only officially an Oxford grad, but I am also engaged to be married to Kyle Miller.

Oh, and our website www.kyleandcaitlan.com is up with a temporary homepage, and we’ll be using that too for updates, etc.

So, I love me new camera. And I love Kyle’s family. And my own, but Kyle’s family decided to have an early Thanksgiving celebration because Kyle and I will be in England and Brett won’t be able to come home. It was Brook’s idea. She brought up Kamara, who has learned how to smile (often with her tongue out) and is adorable. We had turkey, potato boats (twice-baked potatoes if you’re like me and didn’t know what those were), broccoli casserole, ham, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls, gravy, pumpkin and cherry pie, and sweet tea. I think I remembered everything. It was wonderful, and it was nice to have some down time and just relax. They also put up their Christmas tree and watched “White Christmas” (well, most of it, we got tired and went to bed before it ended). And now you get to see my first pictures from my camera (if you haven’t already seen them on Kyle’s profile on facebook).

Teaching her to ghee.

I’ve been meaning to write in here for a while, but I always remember while I’m at work, and I try not to do stuff other than work while I’m at work. But I have some big news. I got my tickets for flying over to England for my graduation. My mom and Kyle are coming with me. We’re driving to Chicago the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and staying with my mom’s friends, John and Gail. Then the next evening we’ll be flying out of Chicago. It’s a direct flight, so we don’t have to worry about layovers, and it was quite a bit cheaper than flying out of Louisville, even with the gas for driving.

So we’ll be in England for Thanksgiving. Not sure what we’ll be doing for that. But we’ll probably be really tired. My graduation is Saturday morning, and then we’ll be flying home Monday, to Chicago, and driving from there. I’m actually really excited about going back to Oxford this time. For one, both my mom and Kyle will be with me. But also, this will be the first time that I go over there with nothing on my mind and nothing to stress about. I’ll have to be there for my graduation Saturday morning, but other than that, I’m set. I’ve arranged for my gown and hood to be rented, and that’s all I have to take care of. So it will be great to just go around and be a tourist of sorts. Also, I just miss Oxford more than I thought I would. Really excited to see my friends too.

Last big news of the day: Kyle got together with my mom and brothers, and they got me a new camera, for my birthday! It’s a little late, but I’ll take it. Kyle and I have been talking for a while about getting me a nice camera (especially since mine was stolen out of my mom’s car), but I didn’t know he had actually ordered one. Today I was looking at prices again, and he just stood there and didn’t say anything about it. It’s a Canon Rebel, a new model of the same camera Brendan has, so he’s going to give me one of his lenses that he doesn’t really use anymore. Haven’t gotten to use it yet, as we just got the body. But tomorrow we’re going to see if we can find a used lens, and then we can play with it. Tonight I’ll just read the manual while watching the election returns. Yay!!

For the past three years, this week of the year I’ve been packing. And this weekend I would be flying to England. But not this year… This year, I’m going to be at my new apartment, going to the St. James Art Fair with Kyle and my mom, and possibly Christi. Going to a St. James party on Saturday evening. Going to my church Sunday morning with my mom. Staying around my apartment because it’s hard to access cars or parking during this weekend. Though I may hate this fair by the end of it, I’m happy to be here.

I am missing my English friends. And it’s weird to think that they’re preparing for this term, and I’m not. But now I’m getting to go to my graduation, so at least I’ll see them in November. Which by the way, Mike Calhoun has been fighting for me and has gotten Georgetown to give me some money for flying over to my graduation in exchange for me writing a story for the alumni magazine. So that’s great, and I’m really appreciative. Now I just have to see if anyone can come over with me. And decide when I’m leaving because, of course, the graduation is on Thanksgiving weekend, the one holiday I’ve been looking forward to being in the US for for three years. But oh well, Thanksgiving comes around every year, and an Oxford graduation is once in a lifetime. So this week has been strange, but a good kind of strange. And I’m glad not to be flying over the ocean again at this time of year.

There is this quote by Walter Bagehot that I found once, and I think it is can be true, though I value education for other reasons too. “Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.” My mom is a teacher after all. I can’t say I don’t value education. However, I do think education can force you to do things you don’t like, and sometimes it makes you forget the things you do like or forget why you like things. Being done with school for all of three months, I’m going to give my take on this.

Most days now, I ride the bus to and from work (though I’ve walked a couple times this week), so rather than worry about fighting traffic or getting somewhere the most quick way I can (I have no control over these things when I’m on the bus, so there’s no point in thinking about them), I can use my time to read. Lots of people don’t understand how anyone could choose to ride public transportation, but I find it quite enjoyable. I get to listen to my music and read my book. I know for some it doesn’t make sense (Christi’s mom takes 15 minutes to drive to work, and it would take her an hour and an hour and a half to get to and from work, respectively, on Louisville’s bus system). But for me, it’s worth it to wake up 15 minutes earlier and take about a half-hour to get to work (including walking to the bus stop and waiting for the bus), not only cost-wise, but also because it gives me time to read (and helps the environment). I also read during lunch. I bring my lunch to save money, but it also saves me time. Now right now, I’m writing in my blog instead of reading, but it’s still time used during my lunch break.

Anyway, back to the original concept of this entry, I had forgotten how much I loved to read, just to be reading, while I was in school. Especially at Oxford, I was constantly reading, but it was always for something else, not for my own pleasure. It was for a test or for a paper, and whenever I did take breaks I watched TV instead of reading because I was tired of reading. And I never got to read for fun. The few times I did, I felt guilty for not studying instead. So now I’ve been reading for fun. And it makes me so happy. It puts me in a good mood when I can just relish in the fact that not only do I have time to read, but I really do enjoy reading. I had missed getting so involved in a book that I didn’t want to do anything else but read. I missed getting absorbed into the world of the book and forgetting my surroundings, reading outside on a sunny day but being convinced that it was rainy because of the torrential downpour happening in my book. And now I have that again.

I’ve apparently also missed writing for fun because I’m rambling on, so I’ll stop now. Just wanted to remind people to try not to forget the things you truly love to do because its just makes life better to do those things and enjoy them. Or do forget and then get reminded so you can have a restoration of sorts. I find it very beneficial in enjoying life.

So I got trapped in my bathroom the other night.

The door to our bathroom always stuck a little at the top, so I decided one evening to be productive and fix it by sanding the top of the door and the door frame. And then we wouldn’t have to make a big noise yanking the door open whenever we came out of the bathroom. Christi wasn’t home. Kyle had just called and said he had gotten done with a meeting early. So I was going to start dinner and he was going to come over. But I thought I could do this really quickly before I started cooking and still have time before Kyle got there. So I stood on the toilet next to the door and sanded it some. I thought I had gotten quite a bit of the paint off the top of the door, so I thought I would try and see if I had fixed it. For some reason, I decided to close the door from the inside of the bathroom. I shut the door, and then pulled, and the bottom came out a bit, but the top of the door was wedged. Somehow I seemed to have made it worse. I pulled a lot until my neck sort of spasmed. Then I decided I should stop.

Of course, I had set my phone on the dresser outside the bathroom after Kyle had called, so I couldn’t contact anyone. I just kept thinking, at least Kyle is on his way, and luckily, he has an extra set of keys to my apartment. Our neighbors were in their backyard watching TV or playing the radio really loudly (that’s what they do). So I considered opening the window and yelling down to them, not that they could do anything because the door to the apartment was locked. Finally, I resigned myself to waiting.

When I first moved in, I had put a CD player in our bathroom for Christi and me to play music when we get ready, so I put in Christi’s Coldplay CD (calming music), and I tried the door every few minutes, just thinking maybe if I let it rest it would pop right open. It didn’t. So I washed my face, rearranged some carpet. Then I decided to do Satin Hands because I had it in there. Then I did Satin Hands on my feet. Then I found a pencil and my hair dryer manual and wrote a note that said, “I’m stuck in here. Don’t think I’m just using the bathroom,” and I slid it under the door, in case I didn’t hear someone come in. Then I turned down the music some to prevent that from happening.

Finally I heard our black gate slam, and Kyle came in and yelled up. And I yelled, and told him I was stuck in the bathroom. I knew the door could be opened from the outside because of how it was stuck at the top, as long as someone could pound on it, rather than pulling on it. So Kyle pounded once, and it opened. He was my knight in shining armor. It was very traumatic, and I will probably never go into our bathroom without my cell phone. However, I did fix it later that night, taking a box cutter blade to it, instead of just sand paper. Now it opens smoothly, as long as the door knob is turned all the way (which sometimes it isn’t).

Christi got home around 11, so if Kyle hadn’t come, I wouldn’t have had to sleep in the bathroom at least. We discussed the possibility of it being our little girl ghost trapping me or just my bad luck with doors. At G-town, our doorknob fell off multiple times and our deadbolt got stuck out, so the door couldn’t close. And something happened to my door in England too. So I’m pretty sure it’s just me. Multiple doors in this apartment are pretty tricky too. So that’s my funny story for a little while.

I think its time my blog at least changes names. I thought about retiring it altogether, but it will still be here, though I doubt I will write in it as much. Usually I wrote in my blog when I was upset, stressed, or less often, exciting about something. Now my life has been full of change, but nothing that different from what everyone else goes through. And I don’t have to depend on the internet to complain about my life or tell my stories. And I don’t have to wait for everyone else gets up because of time differences. Now I have a cell phone to call people and most of the people I talk to are in the same time zone as me. I live a five-minute walk away from Kyle, and I can see my mom within a couple hours if I want. But I have found I’m not nearly as dependent on my computer as I was in England, so I tend to look at my blog less, not that I wrote it in too much even when I was in England.

As a last update on Oxford, here’s a breakdown of my results:
British Politics and Government 61
Microeconomics 68
International Relations 67
Macroeconomics 68.5
Economics of Industry 66
International Economics 63
International Relations in the Cold War 64
Thesis 67.5

(average 65.625)

Above 70 is a first, from 60 to 69 is a 2:1, so I got a solid 2:1. (Of course, my highest mark was in Macroeconomics, the one I liked least.) I ranked 30th in the 2:1s, which I think had 193 students out of 256 PPEists total, though I don’t know how many of those got firsts. So I didn’t do the best, but I did pretty well. And I passed, so I have an Oxford degree, which I’ll officially get in November. Still don’t know if I’m going back for my graduation, depends on money, but we’ll see.