Ha! Romance.

TheLimey got the job offer from his top pick job, so we have been attempting to celebrate that.

We tried having a takeout crab dinner from a local fishmonger, but neither of us had ever had crabs before (yes, ha, ha) so we didn't realize that it was completely inappropriate for a household with a 2-year-old. At least one who is awake, which Limelet always is.  We didn't realize how low the meat-to-shell ratio is, and how much whacking and picking would be involved. The mallet provided by the fishmonger turned out to be so much like Limelet's little wooden hammer for his peg-bench, that we just ended up using that, too.  Despite how frustrating and complicated it was to us, Limelet became immediately distraught because he wanted to whack crabs, too.  I couldn't think of a reason why not to allow it, but you can imagine the results. We ended up clearing everything away and having noodles (Limelet) and crackers and cheese (us).  Maybe we should have done that in the first place.

Limelet may be teething again, as he still has at least another set of four to come in and seems to be showing a  lot of the usual signs.  At any rate, this weekend was a trainwreck as far as sleeping goes.  We are all simply exhausted.  Also cranky, especially me.

At any rate, we went out for a nice rainy walk on campus yesterday to try to tire out Limelet* (and just get outside), and we stopped at the coffee shop mid-campus.  One of the employees (I'll sexistly guess the female one) had left on the counter their current reading material, a romance novel called A Baby in the House .  I was flabbergasted that it could even be remotely considered as romance novel material.  Maybe birth-control novel material, but definitely not romantic!  When we left the coffee shop I told TheLimey about it, and we had a good, if hollow-sounding, laugh.

*It didn't work.  He was up until midnight again anyway.

For no reason

I was taking a break at work, Googling "sour deans" (as one does)  when I came upon this page that is linguistically interesting, in a fluffy yet obscure sort of way.

Recess

That last post has been temporarily recessed for--er, political reasons.  Hopefully it will be back up soon to further enrage others.

 

Meanwhile: What do people do who've had their undergrad studies in, say, Germany and want to apply to grad school in the U.S.?

McCain

McCain's campaign visit here was today. There was a lot more advance notice and you had to have a ticket.

It poured rain.

The campus was not overrun as it was last week.

Obama

So we went to see Obama the day he was here. When we got to the site, stroller and all, there was a hujambous line that snaked all over campus and then south for about four or five blocks.  And it was in the 90s that day.  Ambulances were at the ready, and we saw people being loaded into them before they even got to the fenced-in area.  We decided to people-watch instead.  

Conveniently for us, as we were walking on the other side of the street, Obama's motorcade came sweeping in, so we saw him in his car. Unless it was a ringer, of course.  TheLimey joined the rush up to the fence when Obama began talking, but reported later that all he could see was people's backs.  Meanwhile I slinked sadly away with Limelet in the stroller, but then magically saw a spot near some campus buildings and trees where a couple of people were taking photographs.  Where there are photographers, there is a view.  So I was able after all to catch a glimpse of the white-shirted dot that was Obama behind the miniscule podium draped in patriotic bunting.  I left after al while because I really couldn't hear anything, and a toddler only has so much patience for that sort of thing.

On the way home, also magically, we saw Daddy, who had left his spot at the fence at about the same time we left.  And once we got home, we were just sitting around debriefing when I heard an odd kind of siren and went to the front window--there came the motorcade again, this time up our street and right in front of our house!  So we got to see him (or the ringer) again.  We ran out and waved our hands, but didn't have any flags or anything. Oh well.  It was still cool.

And Limelet was thrilled with seeing the la-la cars, anyway.

Moving Right Along

I almost forgot to mention this:

Yay!  My dissertation revision sign-off sheet was signed by the most unpredictable of my committee members.  (Remember intra-committee drama from my defense?) This is important because I am not officially Ph.D. until they all sign off on the blasted form, and then the dean of the grad school signs it.  The moment she signs it, I am officially Ph.D. and can do official doctor stuff, within licensure limits, of course.  And what is very important, is that the postdoc work I am currently doing does not count towards my licensure hours (I need a year's worth) until it is actually postdoc--until then, it's just basically more internship.  So I've been frothing at the brain about getting that dang paper signed, all the while needing to carefully manage Some People's moods and perceptions about it.  

Although, even when it's signed I still have to apply for graduation to get the actual pretty paper for my wall.  And I will probably not be "walking" until next spring.  I wasn't going to do it, but then TheLimey reminded me that it's not too often in a lifetime that a person graduates, let alone gets a Ph.D., and I should at least do it for the photos for posterity (Limelet).  (Then I will have a fancy robe and hat for festive occasions, such as convocation at my current place of  employment.)

What I didn't discuss much with TheLimey until recently is that in order to get my licensure, I have to not only have a year of supervised postdoc work, but I also have to pass a superduper exam , kinda like your GRE or your Microsoft certification exams and so forth.  A person only gets a couple of chances to pass the EPPP, and the minimum useful study time, as they say, is six weeks.  Most people begin studying months beforehand.  And did I mention it's expensive?

So you see why I didn't extensively discuss this aspect of my career with him yet, as this whole process has already just about killed him as it is.

On the sword side (which is supposedly the even-obscurer counterpart term to the obscure distaff side), TheLimey spent the first week after we moved at an intensive IT boot camp sort of thing, where he studied for and took not one but two Microsoft cert exams, both of which he passed.  Only half of the attendees passed both, so he did pretty well if you ask me.  He's had a lot of interest from recruiters and has several job interviews coming up, one of which is tomorrow.  It looks like a pretty cool place and is very close, though most of them do look pretty cool.

Having recently gone through the job apps process myself, I sympathize with his nerves.  It will be really great when we can all just settle in and get to this daily life that we've spent so much time--years really--setting up.  We are both frickin' tired of all-work weekends after three years solid of them.  I still haven't even unpacked my suitcases from moving, let alone all of our boxes.  I only just yesterday found my graphing calculator, for Pete's sake!

So, wish him luck, send vibes, whatever it is you do.  Hopefully I will be able to pass mine on to him.

Tiredness

I've been really tired the past couple of weeks, and I can't decide if I'm more tired than I was all of last year, or if it's just more noticeable by comparison because now my husband is less tired than last year.

Factors possibly influencing my tiredness:


1. Not a single night of uninterrupted sleep for two years straight
2. New tap water doesn't have iron in it
3. Transition, new job, moving stress kind of thing
4. No (or extremely little) time that I'm not "on duty" (either job or Limelet)
5. No self-care, including no exercise / yoga or similar
6. Hurried and thus often poor eating habits
7. Just getting over a cold
8. Drained by excessive heat lately (we didn't install the AC here)


I guess I should address each one of them.


(When I have the energy and time?)

Obama

We just found out that Obama will be appearing literally just down the block from our house tomorrow, so of course we plan to attend.  It's history in the making!  (Whether he ends up winning or not.)