Of the things I hate about grad school....

I felt like I needed to vent. Of the things I hate about grad school, there are fewer and fewer people who know anything about what you're researching or writing about. I have a question about something that was done like 38 years ago and despite 1. talking to the local agency director, 2. talking to a few folks who work for the state of Ohio, and 3. searching on Google for probably an hour - I have yet to find what I'm looking for.

Not because anyone will be able to help but for your enjoyment. So why are Newark, Lancaster, and some other city in Ohio classified as CDBG (community development block grant) entitlement cities? Entitlement communities have to have pops over 50,000 or be the central cities of a metropolitan area and well, neither are either. They may have been in the 1970s (and if I could find a map of MSAs from the 1970 census...grrr). Libraries have these kinds of things but it may be on microfiche and probably isn't readily available or indexed (you don't search for a map of MSAs to find what you're looking for if you know what I mean). Anyway, none of this is really all that important for my paper as I keep getting distracted from working on it.

Two paragraphs of six pages now done and it's 8pm on Saturday. I've still got about 36 hours before it's due but I have a cold and I plan on going to two church services tomorrow and to work Monday morning. Will I get done? Will I have to skip work again? Will I arrive late, find the last parking spot at the top of the parking garage adjacent to our building (a faith enhancing experience!)? Stay tuned I guess. Maybe not as exciting as James Bond but I've got one thing up on 007, my life is real.

---

Meanwhile, I'm getting laid off at the end of December and haven't taken the time to apply for another job yet. All I can say is that I like Ohio but I think I'm going to do everyone (fellow unemployed job seekers) a favor when I graduate and leave this sorry, jobless state in search for another. If I read one more brain-drain article in the Columbus Dispatch, I'm going to freak out....