Why, hello there. It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?

A few things have waylaid my updating of the ol’ Crawl. In particular:

1. I revised and defended my dissertation.
2. Did you skim #1? I finished dissertating!
3. I helped organize the opening of a new public high school, Critical Design and Gaming School (CDAGS) in South Central.
4. I dealt with the most stressful moving challenge ever and have relocated from Los Angeles to Fort Collins, CO.
5. Ally and I adopted a fiendish canine.

Okay, so recognizing all of these things pretty much took place concurrently, any kind of free time for blogging or–as some of you know–socializing, texting, replying to emails, being a generally personable person to be around-was thrown out the window. Though I’ve been somewhat competent at juggling several things at once, the past two months have been pretty insane.

All that being said, I want to say, “I’m back” and offer a few extra notes about the above.

 On dissertating:

So the only extra thing I’ll add is that UCLA’s dissertation filing system is completely digital. This means that the rather classic committee approval page is no longer physically signed by dissertation committee members (they get to leisurely click a couple of buttons online). While this makes the whole process easier, it also felt lacking of the the tangibility of being done. So I made my own unofficial signature page.

On CDAGS:

CDAGS is going to be incredible. It will continue to be a part of my research and I am truly excited about the ways this school offers meaningful and equitable learning opportunities to the students of South Central. One interesting thing about the CDAGS: it is going to be on a brand new campus (sharing the space with two sister schools that, together, are called the Schools for Community Action). Aside from an interim principal and a minimal staff, the only people that have ever used this new campus are the several dozen displaced teachers from Miramonte Elementary School. (For the non-LA based readers, Miramonte faced several severe allegations of abuse at the school earlier this year; Superintendent Deasy, in response to parent concerns, removed all of the Miramonte teachers and had them housed at the new campus for the remainder of the year while a new stuff was temporarily in place as the abuse investigation proceeded.) It’s been interesting visiting the home of CDAGS. It looks like the teachers currently getting compensated to sit here and not teach are really good at working on puzzles much of the day.

On moving:

I cannot begin to recount how stressful, frustrating, and overwhelming the moving process has been. This warrants a longer post. I will say that the day of moving involved ransoms, shouting, and fires (literally). And while I am certainly going to miss L.A., I must say that our new Colorado friends and colleagues have made life in the quieter city quite easy to adjust to.

On Olive:

Olive was rescued by Ally and I because… well… just look at this thing and tell me you wouldn’t do the same:

We adopted Olive under the assumption that she was a beagle. She’s not. She’s part beagle, part Jack Russel terrier, and part  Linda Blair in the Exorcist. I’m not saying Olive is the spawn of Satan. But I’m also not saying she might not be a not-too-distant relative. To be fair, Olive is a pretty awesome puppy (she’s 6ish months old). The only problem is that her happiness is inversely related to my own writing and packing productivity, making the above list of things I needed to accomplish in the past few months a bit more trying. Olive loves a few things about her new home in Colorado: more space, the dog park nearby, and the assortment of rabbits, mice, and birds that she can chase.

Phew! It’s been a busy few months and I apologize for this blog being out of commission. I’m excited to return here and wipe off the cobwebs at the American Crawl.