And I love it! Yesterday (Wednesday) kicked off my career as a San Francisco State University Graduate Student. My schedule looks like this:

Tues (4:10 PM - 6:55 PM): Foundations in Human Sexuality
Wed (4:10 PM - 6:55 PM): Research Methods in HMSX Studies
Thurs (4:10 - 6:55 PM): Sexuality and the Internet

How fucking awesome is that schedule? To top it off, my cohort (or the other 14 students in my graduate year) is so amazing. After our orientation on Tuesday we went out for drinks and dinner with a bunch of the second-year students and I met some amazing personalities. I got a chance to talk for a while with an incredible second-year who is studying fat burlesque dancers in the city for her thesis. She mentioned that the Dove "Real Women" campaign (featuring, *gasp*, size 10 and 12 "real" women who aren't models professionally) had driven some to put stickers up on the ads saying "Future Type 2 Diabetes." Size 10! Fuck I hate the anti-body regime that is Corporate America.

Our cohort is a diverse bunch in terms of research interests, though the fact that only 2 people of color are included among our group of 15 has me and others worried. It not only leaves conversations on race and issues that race impacts (like, oh yea, everything) virtually incomplete but also puts a great deal of pressure on the two people there to speak for their entire race. I think the group seems to be at least attuned to these issues so I think we can work through two years succesfully.

Last night I had the pleasure of going out one-on-one with another cohort member, Jesse, who hails from NYU where he studied dance. He's the sole arts person in the program and I was happy to meet and hang out with him. We talked about how social scientists often see research and traditional methods of communicating that research as the only legitimate form of work. However, some of the most fascinating stuff I have scene has been performance art BASED on social science research (see, for instance, this blog entry RE: a play by Eric Rofes) - which will, in turn, present the research to a whole range of people who would absolutely never pick up an academic book or journal. I'm glad to have him amung us, for sure. We drank and talked on a pretty quiet Wednesday night over in the Mission at a bar called Cama and then chowed down @ Bagdad Cafe (which, as we noted, was strangely misspelled).

This Saturday both first and second-years are getting together at a second-year's house for a barbeque afternoon drinkfest dubbed "Dirty in Pink." Fuck - I have to go buy a pink shirt.