Not Recommended

I spent a lot of last week sick with some kind of GI bug.  If I had known how long it was going to last, I would have gone to the doctor, but as it was I kept thinking that it was surely over, and then it repeatedly wasn't.  The worst part was really just how exhausted I got after days of no appetite and all...er, output.  And then when I was my most exhausted, Limelet got sick. Best of all, he couldn't bear to be more than two inches away from me at any given time. Somehow, he managed to get a completely different thing than I had, lucky for us all.  But he was still stuck at home for three days with a mother who mostly laid on the floor (not out of dejection, but because we don't have a couch.)  I lost four pounds in about four days, but it's not a method I'd recommend.  What a miserable weekend. I'm still feeling depressed just from the accumulated misery of it.

Another Gap

While I could be using this (probably brief) respite to unpack the remaining box in my office, I am choosing instead to write the blog posts that I always have in my head but never get a chance to write. Every time that something big happens in my life (wedding, baby, moving), I am desperate to blog about it, but end up not being able to blog about the most important or interesting parts because of them actually happening and taking up all my time.

So... way back in July, then.  June was so very rainy and horribly hot, that a bumper crop of mosquitos invaded the campus the next month.  It was extremely itchy for everyone.  We didn't like to take Limelet outside except at certain times of day when they seemed to be sleeping.  However, the other aspect of the heat and wet was that there was also a magical outpouring of fireflies that July.  The lawn outside the  back windows of our squalid hovel blazed with the little critters in the way that I remember them being when I was little.  (They're disappearing, as you probably know, so you can look up online how to encourage them if you wish.)  But when we got here, there were no fireflies at all, though my coworkers claim there are some here.  Somewhere.  But what this place lacks in fireflies, it makes up for in cicadas.  TheLimey had never seen one before; only their empty shells.  He sure got a chance here.  Limelet was really excited when we found several warming on the back pavement one morning.  And our back yard is positively pockmarked with cicada-sized holes where they hatched and crawled out from.

I did somewhat say goodbye to the old campus, but a lot of it was rather hurried as we had so much to do, and for me to go anywhere pretty much requires that I bring Limelet along.  I also didn't say goodbye or even hello to some of my old haunts in town that I was hoping to see, just because it was impossible to do anything at all, that entire year.  (I know, you think I must be exaggerating, but I'm not.)  It was a bit sad to leave, because I've lived in and out of that town off and on for the past 20 years, and I came of age there.  Plus the campus itself is really beautiful.  I was really sad to leave all those magnificent old oaks and sycamores that had become my reliable herbaceous friends over the years.

So it was with great delight that I discovered that our new place across from this new campus is right across the street from even bigger oaks and sycamores!  (Although I'm still unacquainted with them personally.)  This campus, while much much smaller, is very lovely and quite a bit older, too.  TheLimey, who fell in love with the last place when we were living there, fell in love much more quickly with this place.  He says it's like the previous campus, but condensed down to the most beautiful parts and buildings (all the ones from the '70s taken out).  I'd have to agree with him.  It's really quite historic (for the U.S., anyway) and verdant.  It looks like other campuses' brochures try to make them look.  And we live right across the street from it!  From the (American) football field, actually.  

We rented the house sight unseen from the college itself, and crossed our fingers that it would be okay.  And it is OH-KAY, alright.  We have been positively giddy with spaciousness.  We even have a fenced-in back yard, and a little tea-room (as we call it) overlooking the front (football field) that has  windows on three sides.  Limelet has positively blossomed since we moved.  If we had stayed in that previous hovel much longer, he was going to experience that thing where if you tether an elephant, it learns to only walk in tiny circles even after the tether is gone.  He likes feeding tiny bits of stick to the poor Boston Terrier living next door, the  patient creature.

So my walk to work is really, really nice.  TheLimey used to (pessimistically, I thought) declare that the last location was going to be the best walk-to-work experience I'd ever have (although it was a bit of a hike), but he's since recanted and can't believe that I found one that's even better.  If I actually lived and worked inside some kind of gorgeous garden, maybe I could improve on this.  Maybe.

Which reminds me, I really think that one way this country could save gas and reduce health costs would be to put showers in more workplaces.  I can't tell you how many times people have said to me (and I've thought to myself), "I'd just jog/bike to work if I could shower there."

Anyway.  Not only is our new home great, and our view, and my work site, but the whole town is just really cool.  (For people our age, anyway.)  We found an honest-to-goodness teahouse within walking distance, and it's like we designed it ourselves somehow.  It's in the bottom floor of an old townhouse, which has been somewhat opened up.  It's very eclectically decorated  with paintings and knick-knacks, and every tea setting is a different pattern.  They have a wonderful tea selection (though one does have to specifically ask for milk), as well as soup, sandwiches, pastries, etc.  So far everything I've tried has been absolutely delectable.  

We also visited downtown one weekend morning (hurriedly), and the (traditional-style) market is chock full of gorgeous-looking vegetables, fruits, dairy, meats (if you like that sort of thing), spices, teas and coffees, candies, and then also some of the usual handi-craft-y kind of stuff.  If you like that sort of thing.  In the building next door is also a little shop selling British  imports, so I got to try Marmite flavored crisps, which I now want a lot more of. 

Apparently I was planning to blog something about birds, but I don't remember what specifically.  Oh, unless it was just that I finally got my  bird feeder up and have been happy to see my familiar chickadees and cardinals.  Although there is some kind of something singing a lovely song I don't recognize.

Oh yeah, and we have actually had an autumn here!  Already!  By that I mean that it didn't go from 90-degree weather to 40-degree weather with only 16 hours in between.  No, we've actually had nearly two weeks of the kind of proper autumn weather that makes one want to wear a corduroy sport coat, preferably fawn-colored with leather patches on the elbows.  Unbelievably nice.

The only bad thing is that every few Saturdays, there is a fireworks display somewhere nearby that begins without warning exactly when I am tiptoeing over to the bed with the finally sleeping Limelet.

A Very Long Day

Today has been a really long day.  There was a de@th on campus last night, so I've been in crisis-counseling mode for 12 hours already.  I feel like I, myself, have been crying all day just because after a certain amount of exposure feelings "rub off" on the therapist.  (This is why we don't work 12-hour shifts normally!)  

There just happens to be a brief gap in the walk-ins this minute.

I miss my husband and son, but there are some who have it way worse than me today.  At least I know they are okay and I get to go home to them (eventually).

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.)

Mac Mouse -- Bleh.

I never knew how often I used to right-click until now, when I have no right-click button.  The whole dang mouse is one big button. 

The internets say that I can simulate a right-click by using ctrl-click, but it doesn't seem to work with my mouse at all.  Which sucks, because apparently one of my great joys in life has been to right-click on images and put them on my desktop (even my own images from Flick'r, for example.)  Now I don't know how to get an image off the web at all.  I hate being ignorant!

Also, I can't close an open window with a simple right-click of the bottom of the screen.  Dammit.

We're Here

We got here; it's really beautiful. It is probably the most flippin' picturesque US city/town I've ever  seen.  

The train trip was 27 hours of hassle, but still not as bad as taking Limelet in the car would have been.  At least he slept and ate.  The really annoying part was that the first leg of the trip was changed from 4 hours of train to hours of bus--train--bus; this meant that I had to get off and on numerous conveyances wityh a toddler and all my luggage and drag it all around in the sweltering heat three times instead of just getting on a train and spreading out.  Still haven't had a chance to call Amtrak and ask for some kind of recompense as the conductor suggested we do.  We have so many different kinds of administrative crud to do--paperwork and phone calls and picking things up and dropping things off to take care of, it's insane.  Moving out of state means administrative crud, renting a new home means administrative crud, starting a new job means administrative crud, putting Limelet in two separate day care facilities means double administrative crud, and...gah.  Stuff that's impossible to do while looking after Limelet, I might add.

We love our new place a LOT, and the campus is also wonderful, historic, and treeful.  The squirrels, however, are not as friendly as I'm used to, and they are a different type, though small and cute.  TheLimey had to go out of town this week for a training thing immediately after we got here, so the place is still full of unpacked boxes and I'm on my own with Limelet.  I started my new job yesterday and therefore have internet access again there, but I don't want to overdo it right away.  The computers are Macs, so I'm a bit at sea with a lot of the hardware and basic commands, although they run virtual Windows.

Limelet is accepted into the college-run day care, but not until they move to their new location on September 1.  So he's in a chain day care place, and I don't feel very comfortable with it (day care in general and this one in particular).  Not as many workers per child as the last place, which means that when he's upset, they don't have time to comfort him.  And I hate making him have all these transitions.  He was crying his heart out when I came in to pick him up last night, and he immediately burst into tears this morning when I dropped him off.  He's had reduced appetite and digestive problems for the past two weeks from (presumably) the anxiety and stress of moving.  Home is gone, Daddy's gone (he doesn't really understand that he'll be back), day care (that he had just barely gotten used to anyway) has complete strangers in it, and he's spending longer days there.  I want to get him into the new place (which is nicer, and two blocks away from us instead of 5 miles), but it will mean yet another transition to strangers.  Poor little tyke.

Basically,  we love the place and I think it was a good move. However, we are having some culture shock and no time to even process it.

Offline For the Nonce

I may not have much internet access for the next few weeks.  In fact, I don't exactly know when I will have internet access again.  So call, don't email!

Nasty Chocolate

My advice for the day:

 

Don't eat cheap, nasty chocolate.  It will just make you desire real, lovely, buttery chocolate, which you will then have to get. 

Then you've eaten twice the refined sugar and stuff, for only one dose of chocolatey deliciousness. 

 

So go for the good stuff the first time.

Limnal Time!

I so rarely post, but I constantly have a mental thread of things I'd be posting if I happened to be online, but then when I get online I completely forget all of them. I don't know why. Sometimes I can capture it if I post from Gmail. Unlike just now.

We're moving pretty soon, and it's a little weird. I'm excited to go, but of course worrying about some of the arrangements. I noticed I've begun detaching from some things here, such as being trained on new things that will only be applicable for the next week. We are not sure when we will get internet at our new location, so we'll be looking up local information before we leave. Hopefully we will remember to look up all the important things, because I no longer know how to look anything up without the internets.

I will be taking the train overnight with Limelet, while TheLimey drives our car. Limelet is NOT a good car passenger, and is definitely not one of those babies who fall asleep in the car. No matter how sleepy he is, and whether I nurse him immediately prior to a trip, and it's exactly his naptime, and we play his sleepytime CD on the car stereo, he just can't fall asleep in the car. Even if it's several hours. And like many adults, he becomes really cranky and miserable when he's exhausted and can't sleep, so then we have three miserable people including one shrieking, strapped-in toddler. So that's probably the main reason we aren't taking him on a tri-state trip in the car. Also, I just wanted to take the train there.

Our possessions will be driving themselves, with the help of Upack. Our neigbors used it to move to Florida. It's kind of like PODS, but it's moving instead of storage, and also you only pay for the volume you move, so smaller amounts than a train carload are practical. One of my intern cohort will also be using it, it looks like.

A lot of our stuff is still in storage in the last town where we lived, and will stay there a while, waiting for us to send for it in a year or so. I wish that some of the stuff we brought with us was in storage instead of crammed into our current tiny smothering filthy hovel, and some of the stuff that's in storage was with us instead of alternately melting in the summer and cracking in the winter, but...oh well.

Must try to get some more wrapping-up work done here at work now.

Enigmas

Some clients are just hard to figure out. Some, I'm not even sure why they are attending sessions. Maybe just to talk some things out, or just to have human contact, or...I don't know.

When a person doesn't even have a particular thing they wish was different about their lives or themselves, theirs can be a difficult case to approach: "...a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma..." (Wrapped in buttered bacon, no doubt.)

A friend working in a multinational setting stated, "I thought my client was alexithymic. After a while I came to realize he's just Scottish." An anecdote with a very narrow target audience.

Some Explanation Required

Do kids even really know what a pimp is?  If not, why would a parent dress them like one?  If so, why would a parent allow them to dress like one?  Why does this even exist ? 

 

If my kid asked for this costume, there would be a big research project about prostitution in store for him.  Assuming, of course, that he at least already knew what sex was.  And if not, then it'd have to be couched in terms of human trafficking / slavery. 

 

Geez.

Stats Text

From an email I recently sent to my advisor--but I think others should know about it, too.  This is my desert-island stats book now.  (And I have bought a lot of stats texts.)

 

"...I highly recommend the Handbook of Univariate and Multivariate Data Analysis and Interpretation with SPSS (2006) by Robert Ho. 
 
I wish I had it when I started [my dissertation], or [was] even halfway through.  I will totally use it if I ever get to do any further research.  So if you have any students who are doing their theses or dissertations and are not stats experts, it's really clear and practical.  They can even look at pages of it online to see if they want to buy it, at http://books.google.com/books.  (Search for Robert Ho.  Within the book reader, the title page is unavailable but scroll down--lots of pages are available."

Glad Midsommar!

Glad Midsommar!
Originally uploaded by LellePelle

True, this photo(and caption) is Swedish, but It's pretty much the same as the Norwegian tradition.

If we were all there right now, we'd go out on a boat and loaf about under the midnight sun. Ah well.

Happy Solstice!