i likes my job, oh yes i do

today was a good day to be at school (for me, anyway). i learned that i've got $1000 extra money to spend in departmental funds, which is awesome because i want to go to a conference this summer (well, i kind of have to because they accepted my paper) and it's reDONKulously expensive. the registration is $300, the hotel is $200/night, and then there's the airfare. so, yay found money!

in the same meeting that i learned about the money, i learned that i'm going to get a shiny new iMac!!! (i'll spare you the obnoxious exclamation points and just leave it at three.) it's tOtally not my turn to get a new computer (i just got one last year at this time--a dell), but i jokingly offered my barely-touched year-old dell to someone who gets a new computer this year so that i could switch to a mac, and he said fine with him (by the way, this generous individual is the same person i was talking about yesterday. i told you he was nice!). i laughed it off because i really was screwing around, but i found out during the meeting today that he was serious and now it looks like i'm going to be an all-mac girl very soon. woo hoo!

and now i'm capping off my evening by reading a thesis proposal about companion animal bereavement. i love that this is a legitimate topic and that i get to be on the committee. i've already sent the grad student a link to IDA's guardian campaign so she'll understand why i'm removing all mention of the word "owner" from her manuscript, and i'm looking forward to helping with such an animal-friendly project.