Chocolate Aisle Surprise

I was doing my weekly shopping last Sunday at my favorite grocery store when my friend Kathleen called. I find it somewhat annoying when other shoppers talk on their cell phones, so I might not have normally answered except that we had a huge assignment due on Monday, and I thought she might be calling to ask me about it.

"Guess what?" she asked.

"What?" I replied, thinking she must be excited about finishing the assignment.

"Well, I was just looking on the NSF website, and it has both of our names listed as NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Award Recipients for 2007!"

I controlled myself from creating a scene next to the chocolate display in Ward's, but I couldn't believe Kathleen and swore that she was f**king kidding me. I called my parents to look online for me and got no answer, but I wanted to see for myself. My computer was at school, so I drove to campus with all my groceries getting warm to check myself. Our names were in fact on there, but neither of us had received official emails. I thought it was odd to announce it to the public before letting us know indvidually, so I still wasn't going to believe it until I had an official notice. Despite that, I was so excited I couldn't fall asleep until after 3:00a.

I had a meeting scheduled with my adivsor and her husband (who is on my committee) for Monday morning, so I decided not to call them right away and wait to tell them in person, which was good because I received an email from NSF on Monday morning. Karen jumped up and down in circles waving her hands, doing what she called a "happy dance." After the initial excitement, we sat down to start talking business, but Karen periodically stood up to do more adorable "happy dancing" when Alan seemed to be getting too serious.

Okay, that was a long story, but this was all very exciting and will potentially change the pace of my graduate career. I have three years of stipend that I can use over five years. I will make twice as much as I would on a TAship, and I don't have to teach, so I can devote much more of my time to research, and I am free to do field work at any point during the year.