Saturday, August 2, 2014
Monday, July 21, 2014
East Coast Road Trip
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| Shenandoah National Park |
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| Shenandoah |
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| Shenandoah |
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| Shenandoah |
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| the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. |
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| the Washington Monument |
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| the White House! it was actually kind of lame |
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| the Capitol Building |
I just got back from Geneva last night, and am headed out to California on Wednesday. (Hooray!) The Geneva trip was truly excellent, and I expect the California trip will be as well. I have a lot of work to get done before I leave, but it's really fun work, so I'm looking forward to it. I'll post a proper update at some point too, probably.
Saturday, June 14, 2014
some new results
There is a very good reason why I have not been updating my blog. Well, sort of. As you, my faithful readers, are likely aware, my life has been very much in the balance for the past few months. So many things happened, or almost happened, and then everything very suddenly magically worked out.
Here's the scoop. I applied for a postdoctoral research grant from the National Science Foundation back in early November. It was extremely last minute. Maddeningly so. I learned about the grant something like a week before the proposal was due. Thankfully two things had happened: I was already in the process of preparing a different grant proposal, so it wasn't too terribly hard to rewrite that one into a different version for NSF, and the government shutdown had backed things up at NSF so much that they ended up extending the deadline by a week or two, giving me a little extra time.
In any case, it was kind of miserable pulling everything together at the last minute, but I did it, and then I sat. And waited. For months. At the end of January, I learned that my proposal had been sent out for review, which means they sent it to some experts in my field to read what I had written and make comments on it for the big committee meeting. Then in early March, the committee met, and we heard nothing. Radio silence. And then - suddenly - in May, after months of no communication whatsoever from NSF, the status of my proposal magically changed from "pending" to "recommended".
What that means is this: the way NSF works is a big committee meets to discuss all the proposals that have been submitted. The committee members read the proposals themselves, and also the reviews written by the expert reviewers, and the program manager (the head of the committee) has to write up a summary of all of the discussions, and ultimately make a recommendation for which grants should be funded. Normally, when the program manager recommends that a grant be funded, it's funded. So for my grant status to change from "pending" to "recommended" is huge. The problem was, there has been discussion of a bill in congress called the FIRST act, which is the reauthorization for the NSF budget, and it's kind of a mess, from what I understand. They're trying to slash science funding, and they're also trying to implement some really damaging changes to the scientific review process. It's extremely disheartening, to say the least.
So in my case, there was the added issue of the timing of this legislation. I was really worried that even though my grant was recommended, depending on what was happening with the FIRST act, the program manager's recommendation might get shot down. And then I would be in the somewhat tragic position of being the only person anyone's ever heard of who had their grant get recommended and then not funded.
But. But! On June 1st, the status changed again: from "recommended" to "funded". That's it - "funded". And suddenly there's paperwork to fill out and plane tickets that I can buy on my very own grant and my salary is getting changed over to my very own grant as of July 1st.
So all of this time that I have been not blogging, I've been in kind of a precarious mind space, wondering where I would be next year. Hoping against hope that things would work out with this grant, and wanting to write an update here, but holding my breath because what if, what if it doesn't work out. In the meantime, I also had a job interview elsewhere (sort of... that's a subject for a different post), and also spent some time convincing myself that truly, the absolute worst case scenario would be for me to move back to Berkeley for a year, and come on, that's not exactly the end of the world.
But here I am, and it's summer in State College, and the weather has been truly lovely and I get to sit in my upstairs office in my apartment that I love, and work on things that I think are interesting, and go for long runs on Sunday mornings, and spend the day on Saturday brewing beer and pulling weeds in the garden plot I'm sharing with my neighbors. Things have gotten so cozy here. I'm really feeling at home, and at least part of that is because I now know I can stay here, so I can afford to get attached to it. I have some really great friends who live in the same apartment complex as me, and some nights we sit out on the porch together, or in the grass behind our houses, munching on snacks and shooting the breeze. It's a good life, and I'm glad I get to live it for a little while longer.
This summer is about to become a little bit crazy, though, so I'm trying to enjoy the lazy days of summer while I can. J will be here starting Tuesday (yay!!), and we will have a month of hanging out and probably alternately working from home and going out and exploring the environs. Then the craziness starts. I'll be in Geneva for a week (yes, just one week) in July, for a conference. Then I stop off in PA, do my laundry, and head back out to California almost immediately, where J and I are driving up north (basically on the border with Oregon) for his family reunion. I'll be back here at the beginning of August, and then I guess it's time for the semester, and it'll be time to start keeping my eyes peeled for faculty jobs.
And that is the story of what I've been up to for the past few months. Oh, also, I went to my Berkeley graduation and G & S's wedding in May, and it was really wonderful. I hope they don't mind if I post a picture here. (It's on the internet elsewhere, so I don't think it should matter.)
Here's the scoop. I applied for a postdoctoral research grant from the National Science Foundation back in early November. It was extremely last minute. Maddeningly so. I learned about the grant something like a week before the proposal was due. Thankfully two things had happened: I was already in the process of preparing a different grant proposal, so it wasn't too terribly hard to rewrite that one into a different version for NSF, and the government shutdown had backed things up at NSF so much that they ended up extending the deadline by a week or two, giving me a little extra time.
In any case, it was kind of miserable pulling everything together at the last minute, but I did it, and then I sat. And waited. For months. At the end of January, I learned that my proposal had been sent out for review, which means they sent it to some experts in my field to read what I had written and make comments on it for the big committee meeting. Then in early March, the committee met, and we heard nothing. Radio silence. And then - suddenly - in May, after months of no communication whatsoever from NSF, the status of my proposal magically changed from "pending" to "recommended".
What that means is this: the way NSF works is a big committee meets to discuss all the proposals that have been submitted. The committee members read the proposals themselves, and also the reviews written by the expert reviewers, and the program manager (the head of the committee) has to write up a summary of all of the discussions, and ultimately make a recommendation for which grants should be funded. Normally, when the program manager recommends that a grant be funded, it's funded. So for my grant status to change from "pending" to "recommended" is huge. The problem was, there has been discussion of a bill in congress called the FIRST act, which is the reauthorization for the NSF budget, and it's kind of a mess, from what I understand. They're trying to slash science funding, and they're also trying to implement some really damaging changes to the scientific review process. It's extremely disheartening, to say the least.
So in my case, there was the added issue of the timing of this legislation. I was really worried that even though my grant was recommended, depending on what was happening with the FIRST act, the program manager's recommendation might get shot down. And then I would be in the somewhat tragic position of being the only person anyone's ever heard of who had their grant get recommended and then not funded.
But. But! On June 1st, the status changed again: from "recommended" to "funded". That's it - "funded". And suddenly there's paperwork to fill out and plane tickets that I can buy on my very own grant and my salary is getting changed over to my very own grant as of July 1st.
So all of this time that I have been not blogging, I've been in kind of a precarious mind space, wondering where I would be next year. Hoping against hope that things would work out with this grant, and wanting to write an update here, but holding my breath because what if, what if it doesn't work out. In the meantime, I also had a job interview elsewhere (sort of... that's a subject for a different post), and also spent some time convincing myself that truly, the absolute worst case scenario would be for me to move back to Berkeley for a year, and come on, that's not exactly the end of the world.
But here I am, and it's summer in State College, and the weather has been truly lovely and I get to sit in my upstairs office in my apartment that I love, and work on things that I think are interesting, and go for long runs on Sunday mornings, and spend the day on Saturday brewing beer and pulling weeds in the garden plot I'm sharing with my neighbors. Things have gotten so cozy here. I'm really feeling at home, and at least part of that is because I now know I can stay here, so I can afford to get attached to it. I have some really great friends who live in the same apartment complex as me, and some nights we sit out on the porch together, or in the grass behind our houses, munching on snacks and shooting the breeze. It's a good life, and I'm glad I get to live it for a little while longer.
This summer is about to become a little bit crazy, though, so I'm trying to enjoy the lazy days of summer while I can. J will be here starting Tuesday (yay!!), and we will have a month of hanging out and probably alternately working from home and going out and exploring the environs. Then the craziness starts. I'll be in Geneva for a week (yes, just one week) in July, for a conference. Then I stop off in PA, do my laundry, and head back out to California almost immediately, where J and I are driving up north (basically on the border with Oregon) for his family reunion. I'll be back here at the beginning of August, and then I guess it's time for the semester, and it'll be time to start keeping my eyes peeled for faculty jobs.
And that is the story of what I've been up to for the past few months. Oh, also, I went to my Berkeley graduation and G & S's wedding in May, and it was really wonderful. I hope they don't mind if I post a picture here. (It's on the internet elsewhere, so I don't think it should matter.)
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| I think this is G's 1052nd picture of the day. I assure you he was quite happy in person. |
Tonight I think I'm going to Happy Valley Brewing Company to watch the World Cup, and tomorrow is long run day, and I also have some laundry to do and more weeds to pull. (Gardening is hard work. Especially when you only do it in extremely punctuated spurts. :-P ) I will try to make my next update not take quite so long as this one did (although no promises that I will be able to top the NSF news).
Happy Summer!
Monday, March 31, 2014
some new experiments
... Every day so caffeinated
I wish they were Golden Gated
Fillmore couldn't feel more miles away
So wrap me up, return to sender
Let's forget this five-year bender
Take me to my city by the Bay
I never knew all that I had
Now Alcatraz don't sound so bad
At least they got a hella fine Merlot
If I could wish upon a star
Then I would hitch a cable car
To the place that I can always call my own...
I wish they were Golden Gated
Fillmore couldn't feel more miles away
So wrap me up, return to sender
Let's forget this five-year bender
Take me to my city by the Bay
I never knew all that I had
Now Alcatraz don't sound so bad
At least they got a hella fine Merlot
If I could wish upon a star
Then I would hitch a cable car
To the place that I can always call my own...
"Save Me, San Francisco," by Train
* * * * *
Experiment 1: Effects of Mystery Food Sensitivities on Skin Inflammation
Background. Remember how the skin on my face has been weirdly inflamed, and I thought I had developed a sensitivity to eggs? Well, a few weeks back, I had an acute reaction to something, and I have no idea what it was (except that it wasn't eggs, because I haven't been eating any eggs). I got home from an evening out, and I had these big blotchy red patches all over my stomach. So I decided to do an elimination diet to try to figure out what in the heck is going on.
Hypothesis. I have developed a mild allergy to something, and through the power of science, I will figure out what it is.
Participants. One. (Me.)
Materials. Rice, vegetables, fruit, and olive oil.
Procedure. Cut out all known allergens for a period of approximately three weeks. Then add one back in at a time and see what happens.
Preliminary results. I have been subsisting almost entirely on rice, vegetables, fruit, and olive oil for two weeks now. For the first time in my life, I've been trying to up my meat consumption, because otherwise I get hungry too easily.
During the first week of my "experiment", the skin on my face, where it had been red and inflamed, got all peely and looked like it was healing. Now most of the inflammation is gone, and it seems like it continues to improve. I'm getting used to eating this way, although it's kind of a pain in the rear. It makes it really hard to eat out, and now I'm one of those annoying people who asks things like, "What kind of oil is that fried in?" and "Do you know if the mashed potatoes are made with butter?" or "Does your soup of the day have any gluten in it?"
So, I feel totally weird and annoying, and I also really really miss dairy products. It would be incredibly hard for me to keep this up, except 1) I want to know why my skin has been being weird, so I can avoid the thing that's been making it weird, and 2) if I treat it like an experiment, it's actually kind of exciting. In a week I get to start adding foods back in and see what happens! It should be cool!
* * * * *
Experiment 2: Trying on New Hats
Background. It has recently been brought to my attention that hey, actually, there might not be enough money for me to stay on in my current job next year, so I have to apply for positions elsewhere, just in case it doesn't work out. In writing these applications, I have to admit, it's not that hard for me to get excited at the prospect of going somewhere new. I submitted an application for a postdoc in Philadelphia today, and it's the one I'm most excited about. I might be moving to Philadelphia in a few months! Or maybe Connecticut! Or maybe to the Netherlands! Who can say?!
Hypothesis. In theory, if I treat it like a "Big Adventure!" it's kiiiiind of exciting. But that might just be the optimist in me trying to make the best of things. I don't really want to move. (Especially to the Netherlands, even though it sounds like a very nice job, in a very nice place.) I would rather stay here and be able to actually carry out the research I want to do instead of having to readjust to a new place, with new people, in a new town, in a new institution, et cetera. I kind of think it will work out for me to stay here, but I won't know for about a month or so.
Participants. One. Me. Still just me. Although I have some friends now, and J comes to visit me fairly frequently.
Materials. Many pages of letters and research proposals and versions of my CV. Some stress. A perpetual feeling of vague displacement, as though I am dislodged in space-time, floating about, waiting to settle down someplace where I can actually stay for a while.
Procedure. Rewrite materials (see above). Submit them to search committees. Ask my advisors for more letters of recommendation. Wait. Work on the 57th version of my dissertation research manuscript in the meantime. Start to worry that I will never actually accomplish anything, or have a place that actually fully feels like my home.
Preliminary results. Mild to moderate unease, occasionally alternating with twinges of excitement that that job in Philly could actually be really awesome. Or it could be great to stay here another year and finally get to run the study I've been planning. Or hey, something else will probably work out... right? Further research is needed.
* * * * *
Experiment 3: Going the Distance
Background. J and I were planning on breaking up when I moved to Pennsylvania, and instead we decided to give it a go long distance. This felt really risky at the time, but also like the best of two undesirable alternatives.
Hypothesis. I think if we keep doing what we're doing, we'll be okay.
Participants. Me and J.
Materials. Plane tickets and about two days' worth of traveling for one of us every 4 - 6 weeks. Lots of Skype time.
Preliminary results. A marked result of the present investigation is that it is not uncommon for me to wake up in the middle of the night and have no idea where I am. I am also unable to live in one time zone, such that I am always in some crappy, in between, totally non functional time zone that seems to be inappropriate for both the east and west coasts. (Maybe if I wind up back in Central time, I'll finally be on the same schedule as everyone else.) A new hypothesis that emerges from the latter finding is that I am somewhat depressed these days. This could potentially explain why I've been having trouble making myself work sometimes, and why I have a hard time waking up in the morning. Of course, the weather has also been total crap for about 5 months now, and the cold dreary gray days also contribute to my desire to sleep in pretty much every day.
* * * * *
Conclusion. The present experiments have attempted to isolate the individual factors contributing to the general weirdness of my life lately. However, the results thus far suggest that perhaps all of these feelings are intertwined, in such a way that renders the primary subject mired in a state that could aptly be characterized as "Perpetual Blah." Future work should attempt to tease apart the contributing influences of mystery food sensitivities, time zone trouble, weather, and perhaps mild depression due to missing my significant other and the generally puzzling life circumstances in which I find myself, in an attempt to better understand why exactly I've been feeling so blah. At present, the only obvious recommendation is to keep on keepin' on, to hang out with friends when I can, and to try to go running more often now that it might (finally!) be done snowing and icing.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Dissertation, Part 2 (subtitle: "It Never Actually Ends")
I am so very close to submitting the first paper from my dissertation work. It is really shaping up, and I'm getting kind of proud of it. The end game is very weird, though, because the longer you work on something while feeling like it's almost done, the more it starts to feel like you will never actually be done. It's like the end of a race, when you can see the stupid finish line, and yet no matter how hard you run, it always stays in the distance. I have watched this paper go from about 10 pages of partial analyses just a few weeks ago to a whopping 46 pages of hard-fought argumentation, as of today, and I've still got a few more to go before I can really put the nail in the coffin. It just keeps expanding, though! The only thing I have left to finish up is the general discussion, at the very end, and I have notes for what I want to say, and all of the papers I think I need to cite. So in a way, it looks SO CLOSE to being done. And yet, I look at that (relatively short) list of papers I still need to discuss, and then I realize how much more reading I need to do before I can discuss them, because every "mention so-and-so here" note means I need to re-read 15 - 30 pages of someone else's work and think about how exactly it relates to what I'm doing before I can write that section. And then I end up with a few more paragraphs that are hopefully good, and fair, and well written, but every single one of those takes at least 30 - 45 minutes, and sometimes several hours.
And this is still my dissertation work! You know, the stuff I "finished" six months ago! I guess I knew it would be like this - that it's always like this... that this is the career I signed up for, after all - but I am continually amazed at just how long everything takes. I've been working on this project regularly, in earnest, for about a year now, and I'm just now getting to the point where it's close to being submitted to a journal. I think it has a good chance of being accepted somewhere decent, which is exciting, but it gets kind of daunting thinking about how many times I'm going to have to go through this very process! Of course, I can partially console myself with the knowledge that I will presumably get better at this sort of thing as I go, that this may be the hardest paper I ever prepare for publication, since it's my first one and all, but it is kind of daunting thinking about just how much time a project can take, and thinking about finding a way of accomplishing that once I have other significant drains on my time, like teaching, and faculty meetings, and advising students, and writing grants...
So... let's just assume that the paper writing, at least, is going to get easier as I go. It helps to realize that I haven't been at this very long at all, in the scheme of things, and that all of the researchers I admire have been working on this one tiny little piece of the puzzle that we're all working on for years now, and I just really got started a year ago. In five or ten or twenty years, I might not have to spend quite so long looking up papers and assimilating new information. I hope!
Okay, back to work now. I'm trying to submit this thing by the end of next week, and I think I can do it!
And this is still my dissertation work! You know, the stuff I "finished" six months ago! I guess I knew it would be like this - that it's always like this... that this is the career I signed up for, after all - but I am continually amazed at just how long everything takes. I've been working on this project regularly, in earnest, for about a year now, and I'm just now getting to the point where it's close to being submitted to a journal. I think it has a good chance of being accepted somewhere decent, which is exciting, but it gets kind of daunting thinking about how many times I'm going to have to go through this very process! Of course, I can partially console myself with the knowledge that I will presumably get better at this sort of thing as I go, that this may be the hardest paper I ever prepare for publication, since it's my first one and all, but it is kind of daunting thinking about just how much time a project can take, and thinking about finding a way of accomplishing that once I have other significant drains on my time, like teaching, and faculty meetings, and advising students, and writing grants...
So... let's just assume that the paper writing, at least, is going to get easier as I go. It helps to realize that I haven't been at this very long at all, in the scheme of things, and that all of the researchers I admire have been working on this one tiny little piece of the puzzle that we're all working on for years now, and I just really got started a year ago. In five or ten or twenty years, I might not have to spend quite so long looking up papers and assimilating new information. I hope!
Okay, back to work now. I'm trying to submit this thing by the end of next week, and I think I can do it!
Saturday, January 25, 2014
lazy Saturday
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| Leaving Café Lemont |
It's snowing something fierce outside, and I'm sitting at Café Lemont in State College, just letting the cafe noise wash over me and enjoying the hum of warmth and activity. All of the mugs here are handmade by a lady who sells them in house, and mine has a thick, bulbous ceramic base that you can cup in your hands, and it's full of warm, frothy latte. My friend and neighbor E and her boyfriend are at a table a few feet away, and she's explaining to him what garden path sentences are, and the couple behind me are code switching between Arabic and English. I love this café. It's furnished with what seems to be antique/thift store furniture, and there are these beautiful dreamy paintings on the walls painted by a local artist. They're the types of art I'd like to have in my house someday, maybe in some far off future when I'm making a professor's salary instead of a postdoc one, and I can do things like buy art from local artists that I like.
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| Inside Café Lemont |
I've been feeling down this week. Very intermittently, though; it comes and goes, and thankfully it mostly goes. That is to say, most days I'm really happy and there are so many good things in my life right now. I love my job and my work, and I'm making some really great friends here. I've made it a point to exercise every day since I got back from break, and that's been really nice. It is so cold here right now. Too cold for running some days, really, and I am not exactly a wimp when it comes to running in the cold. 15 degrees is about my limit, though, because below that and it just hurts your skin and lungs. So I go running as long as it's not too windy and biting, but that's usually only once a week right now. The other days, I've been doing strength training-type stuff at home, and I'm getting noticeably stronger, which I really like. I haven't had much upper body strength since I was playing volleyball and lifting weights regularly in high school, and I'd like to get back to the point where I'm actually strong-strong. Winter in central PA is a pretty good time to work on that, it turns out.
Last night I had two bad dreams (two!) and I don't know what to make of that; I can't tell if I'm in a weird-sad mood today because of the dreams, or if already being in a slightly weird-sad mood is what brought the dreams on in the first place. I think it's a little bit of both, unfortunately. But I woke up in the middle of the night and was just so, so sad and couldn't get back to sleep for a little bit. Thankfully I did get back to sleep after not too long, but then I had a second bad dream, and then it was morning, so I stayed awake after that. But it was just not a restful night's sleep, and it's definitely affected my day today. Bad dreams are funny when you're an adult, too. Not funny-ha-ha, obviously, but funny-isn't-that-weird. You'd think they'd go away when you grow up, but really all that changes is the things that feel out of your control enough to make you feel scared. I don't mean this to be as cryptic and worrying as it sounds. I'm just musing on the fact that at nearly 30 years old, it's still possible to wake up feeling freaked out from a bad dream!
Well, one of my postdoc friends is here now, so maybe that will help get me out of my funk. I decided to dress up a little bit today, and it's almost silly how much that perked me up. I decided to wear a dress and put on some mascara and even a tiny little spritz of perfume, and it's kind of fun to feel the tiniest bit fancier than normal.
* * * * * * *
So... things are good, in the scheme of things. But I miss my boyfriend very much, and that sucks, and I still don't know how long I'm going to be here or where I'm going next or for how long, and that kind of sucks too. (The other side of the coin is that it's fun and exciting by turns, but I definitely vacillate between those feelings with some regularity.)
On a related note, it's looking pretty strongly like I'll be staying here for at least one more year, maybe two, and conceivably even three. I have a near-guarantee of funding for next year, and I also have two grants that are going to be reviewed very soon, and if one of those comes through (fingers and toes crossed!), then I would have 2-3 years of my very own funding. So within two months, I will know for sure just how long I'll be staying here, and I think that will help a little bit with my mild feelings of drifting-related anxiety.
Hmph. I think I'll try to go back to reading Game of Thrones now.
Monday, January 20, 2014
I still love you, blog.
Ohhh blog. My poor, poor blog. Here it sits, all on its lonesome, with no one to love it, and no one to write in it, and therefore probably no one to read it. Poor, sad, un-updated blog.
I will fix you, blog. I will write in you right now while my apples bake in the oven and make my house smell like yummy cinnamon dessert.
Where to start? It's been nearly two months! (For shame.) Well...
I spent two weeks in Berkeley at the end of November/beginning of December. It was so nice to see everyone. I mean, that's an understatement, really. The nice thing about only having been gone for three months is that it was so normal to be back in Berkeley! Everything was just as I left it, really. The only weird part was that I didn't have an apartment anymore. I kept thinking, "Okay, well, time to go home now..." except that someone else lives in my "home" now. That was small potatoes, though. I was surprised at just how normal everything felt, and it was very comforting, but slightly unsettling at the same time. I keep bumping up against this feeling that I have multiple homes, and multiple places where I sort of belong. In some ways, it's a nice feeling, obviously, because there are lots of places I can go where I mostly feel at home. But the flip side, of course, is that there's literally nowhere in my life where I feel completely at home, and it's enough to start me down the path into Existential Crisis Land, if I'm in the wrong mood.
Anyway, we did Thanksgiving, and it was really wonderful. I went to a conference, and I got to hang out with lots of people I had missed very much. I sort of wasted a day driving down to Stanford to give a talk... "wasted" only because it wasn't particularly well attended, and I would have been better served by going to the last day of the conference I was ostensibly in town to attend... but it was okay. I also submitted another research grant that probably won't get funded, but you never know! And I had a great meeting with one of my advisors, where we set down The Grand Plan for how I'm going to get my dissertation stuff published. That plan involved me submitting at least one (preferably two) papers by the end of January, so... ahem.... (There's still time, there's still time, I tell myself.)
Then I came back to State College for a few weeks, where I must have done something, but I can't for the life of me remember what.
And then I drove to Illinois for Christmas, which is a freaking long drive, in case you were wondering. It was a nice drive - at least until you get past Columbus, Ohio, at which point it turns into cornfields-cornfields-cornfields-flat-flat-flat. Christmas was also nice, but I found myself missing J a lot and really looking forward to heading back to Berkeley.
So, then I headed back to California and spent two more weeks in Berkeley. Well, sort of; we actually drove down to Santa Barbara right away and spent a few days hanging out in the glorious sunshine, running on the beach, and doing the sorts of things that feel like you're rubbing it in people's faces if you tell them about it. Suffice it to say that I adore Santa Barbara, and we had a wonderful time down there.
We drove back up to Berkeley after a few days, and I started to get myself back into work mode a little bit. I was having a very nice time, in fact: walking to a nice cafe in the morning, working for a few hours before meeting up with a friend or two for lunch, then maybe going out for dinner or just hanging out in the evenings. Then - BLAMMO - food poisoning. Nooooo fuuuuuuun. I think it must have been leftover Thai food, because a few hours after I finished it off, I suddenly started getting really nauseous and uncomfortable, and then I was up all night violently ridding my body of all its contents. Thankfully I had someone who apparently loves me very much who was willing to go out and buy me popsicles and Gatorade, but that was the only remotely good part about it, and my gastrointestinal tract was noticeably messed up for close to a week.
And here I am back in State College! It's been nice to be back, and it's nice to start getting back into the swing of things. I've been trying really hard to finish up one paper and get to work on a different paper, and have been making decent progress on both, so that's pretty good. I've also been enjoying being back in my own kitchen so I can cook to my heart's delight; I baked some really nice bread yesterday, and I've been roasting lots of veggies to eat over baked potatoes, and baking lots of apples to eat over cold, tangy yogurt. Maybe it's the aftermath of the food poisoning and feeling so out of whack for a week, but I've mostly been craving healthy stuff, so I'm just rolling with it.
Oh! Speaking of nutritional anomalies, here is a doozy: I think I have a sensitivity to eggs! Isn't that the lamest thing ever?! I love eggs! I eat so many eggs!! Maybe that's the problem, or something; I've been trying to reduce the amount of empty carbohydrates in my life and have been largely replacing them with eggs for a while now. Scrambled eggs and veggies instead of oatmeal for breakfast, lentils and eggs instead of beans and rice for dinner, that sort of thing. But, when I was in Illinois for Christmas I realized my skin totally and completely cleared up, and it hadn't been that clear for a while. So I realized that two major things had been removed from my diet as a result of not being at home: eggs and dairy. I decided to experiment when I got back, and went back to eating my normal amount of dairy but still not eating any eggs, and my skin has stayed clear. I guess the thing to do now would be to have scrambled eggs for breakfast and see what happens, but I'm worried that if I do that, I'll have incontrovertible evidence that I have a dietary sensitivity to eggs, and I kind of just don't want to know, so I haven't eaten any eggs for like a month now. It is bumming me out a little bit.
The other thing that's been a little weird lately (going back to what I was saying before) is that I keep forgetting where I am, which is a very strange feeling. Not like, "wait, am I in the kitchen or in the living room?", more like, "wait, am I on the East Coast or the West Coast?" I never in a million years thought that would be an issue in my life, but here we are in 2014 and I'm one of those annoying jet setters who commutes across a continent and can't keep her time zones straight.
Anyway. In conclusion, I guess: life is weird, and it only gets weirder. But that's not a complaint: life is very, very nice, too. It's just really not what I thought it would be, and right now I feel like I'm very much along for the ride. So I'll keep baking apples and trying to write papers and living half on one coast and half on the other for the foreseeable future. Quelle vie bizarre et inattendue que je mène!
I will fix you, blog. I will write in you right now while my apples bake in the oven and make my house smell like yummy cinnamon dessert.
Where to start? It's been nearly two months! (For shame.) Well...
I spent two weeks in Berkeley at the end of November/beginning of December. It was so nice to see everyone. I mean, that's an understatement, really. The nice thing about only having been gone for three months is that it was so normal to be back in Berkeley! Everything was just as I left it, really. The only weird part was that I didn't have an apartment anymore. I kept thinking, "Okay, well, time to go home now..." except that someone else lives in my "home" now. That was small potatoes, though. I was surprised at just how normal everything felt, and it was very comforting, but slightly unsettling at the same time. I keep bumping up against this feeling that I have multiple homes, and multiple places where I sort of belong. In some ways, it's a nice feeling, obviously, because there are lots of places I can go where I mostly feel at home. But the flip side, of course, is that there's literally nowhere in my life where I feel completely at home, and it's enough to start me down the path into Existential Crisis Land, if I'm in the wrong mood.
Anyway, we did Thanksgiving, and it was really wonderful. I went to a conference, and I got to hang out with lots of people I had missed very much. I sort of wasted a day driving down to Stanford to give a talk... "wasted" only because it wasn't particularly well attended, and I would have been better served by going to the last day of the conference I was ostensibly in town to attend... but it was okay. I also submitted another research grant that probably won't get funded, but you never know! And I had a great meeting with one of my advisors, where we set down The Grand Plan for how I'm going to get my dissertation stuff published. That plan involved me submitting at least one (preferably two) papers by the end of January, so... ahem.... (There's still time, there's still time, I tell myself.)
Then I came back to State College for a few weeks, where I must have done something, but I can't for the life of me remember what.
And then I drove to Illinois for Christmas, which is a freaking long drive, in case you were wondering. It was a nice drive - at least until you get past Columbus, Ohio, at which point it turns into cornfields-cornfields-cornfields-flat-flat-flat. Christmas was also nice, but I found myself missing J a lot and really looking forward to heading back to Berkeley.
So, then I headed back to California and spent two more weeks in Berkeley. Well, sort of; we actually drove down to Santa Barbara right away and spent a few days hanging out in the glorious sunshine, running on the beach, and doing the sorts of things that feel like you're rubbing it in people's faces if you tell them about it. Suffice it to say that I adore Santa Barbara, and we had a wonderful time down there.
We drove back up to Berkeley after a few days, and I started to get myself back into work mode a little bit. I was having a very nice time, in fact: walking to a nice cafe in the morning, working for a few hours before meeting up with a friend or two for lunch, then maybe going out for dinner or just hanging out in the evenings. Then - BLAMMO - food poisoning. Nooooo fuuuuuuun. I think it must have been leftover Thai food, because a few hours after I finished it off, I suddenly started getting really nauseous and uncomfortable, and then I was up all night violently ridding my body of all its contents. Thankfully I had someone who apparently loves me very much who was willing to go out and buy me popsicles and Gatorade, but that was the only remotely good part about it, and my gastrointestinal tract was noticeably messed up for close to a week.
And here I am back in State College! It's been nice to be back, and it's nice to start getting back into the swing of things. I've been trying really hard to finish up one paper and get to work on a different paper, and have been making decent progress on both, so that's pretty good. I've also been enjoying being back in my own kitchen so I can cook to my heart's delight; I baked some really nice bread yesterday, and I've been roasting lots of veggies to eat over baked potatoes, and baking lots of apples to eat over cold, tangy yogurt. Maybe it's the aftermath of the food poisoning and feeling so out of whack for a week, but I've mostly been craving healthy stuff, so I'm just rolling with it.
Oh! Speaking of nutritional anomalies, here is a doozy: I think I have a sensitivity to eggs! Isn't that the lamest thing ever?! I love eggs! I eat so many eggs!! Maybe that's the problem, or something; I've been trying to reduce the amount of empty carbohydrates in my life and have been largely replacing them with eggs for a while now. Scrambled eggs and veggies instead of oatmeal for breakfast, lentils and eggs instead of beans and rice for dinner, that sort of thing. But, when I was in Illinois for Christmas I realized my skin totally and completely cleared up, and it hadn't been that clear for a while. So I realized that two major things had been removed from my diet as a result of not being at home: eggs and dairy. I decided to experiment when I got back, and went back to eating my normal amount of dairy but still not eating any eggs, and my skin has stayed clear. I guess the thing to do now would be to have scrambled eggs for breakfast and see what happens, but I'm worried that if I do that, I'll have incontrovertible evidence that I have a dietary sensitivity to eggs, and I kind of just don't want to know, so I haven't eaten any eggs for like a month now. It is bumming me out a little bit.
The other thing that's been a little weird lately (going back to what I was saying before) is that I keep forgetting where I am, which is a very strange feeling. Not like, "wait, am I in the kitchen or in the living room?", more like, "wait, am I on the East Coast or the West Coast?" I never in a million years thought that would be an issue in my life, but here we are in 2014 and I'm one of those annoying jet setters who commutes across a continent and can't keep her time zones straight.
Anyway. In conclusion, I guess: life is weird, and it only gets weirder. But that's not a complaint: life is very, very nice, too. It's just really not what I thought it would be, and right now I feel like I'm very much along for the ride. So I'll keep baking apples and trying to write papers and living half on one coast and half on the other for the foreseeable future. Quelle vie bizarre et inattendue que je mène!
Monday, November 25, 2013
Berkeley, here I come!
Earlier this week, I went for a run. I use this website called Gmap Pedometer to see how far my runs are, and you have to type in your town for it to zoom in. So I get back, and I sit down, and I type, "berkeley, ca" into the search bar.
Whoops.
It was actually the first time I'd done that here. When I first moved to Berkeley, oh so many moons ago, I typed "urbana, il" multiple times - sheer force of habit - and it made me a little sad every time. This made me a little sad too, except that I'm leaving for Berkeley today, so mostly it was just a funny little trick that my fingers played on me.
Now I have to sit on planes and in airports for something like 11 hours, but it will all be worth it. I can't wait to see everyone! I am so so so excited!
Whoops.
It was actually the first time I'd done that here. When I first moved to Berkeley, oh so many moons ago, I typed "urbana, il" multiple times - sheer force of habit - and it made me a little sad every time. This made me a little sad too, except that I'm leaving for Berkeley today, so mostly it was just a funny little trick that my fingers played on me.
Now I have to sit on planes and in airports for something like 11 hours, but it will all be worth it. I can't wait to see everyone! I am so so so excited!
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Niagara Falls
I'm back!
I'm back because I'm home and don't know what else to do with myself, because I don't want to work tonight --
-- phone call from my postdoc advisor. Turns out I don't have to teach next semester if I don't want to! So now I have to decide if I want to teach. Interesting. --
Anyway, yeah, not working any more tonight because my grant isn't due until Tuesday, and it's actually in pretty good shape. It's not quite there, but I have several days to make what are some relatively minor edits and additions at this point, so I'm just about done worrying about it.
So I might as well tell you about my trip to Niagara Falls!
I didn't drive up with the express purpose of seeing Niagara Falls, of course. I went to go visit my friend!
I'm back because I'm home and don't know what else to do with myself, because I don't want to work tonight --
-- phone call from my postdoc advisor. Turns out I don't have to teach next semester if I don't want to! So now I have to decide if I want to teach. Interesting. --
Anyway, yeah, not working any more tonight because my grant isn't due until Tuesday, and it's actually in pretty good shape. It's not quite there, but I have several days to make what are some relatively minor edits and additions at this point, so I'm just about done worrying about it.
So I might as well tell you about my trip to Niagara Falls!
I didn't drive up with the express purpose of seeing Niagara Falls, of course. I went to go visit my friend!
M is originally from Buffalo, is a current grad student at Berkeley, but is back in Buffalo for this semester. I drove up to visit her a few weeks back, and it was such a beautiful drive. Man, driving through the Appalachians and up into western New York with fall in full swing… not something I ever thought I would experience, but it was absolutely gorgeous, and I'm so glad I got the chance to do it.
So seeing M was wonderful, of course (I really miss her!), and she was super excited to take me to see Niagara Falls, which is like a 15 minute drive from her house. Isn't that crazy? I can't even imagine growing up right by Niagara Falls.
The pictures really don't do it justice. The amount of power behind that incredible amount of water is absolutely mind-blowing. It was surprisingly scary, actually!
So I had a wonderful weekend, and it was a really neat experience, and really nice to catch up with my friend!
I also just downloaded these pictures from my phone, and there was this one from the Color Run, a 5K I did back in September:
It's weird; you can't tell at all from this picture how much weird chalk-paint I had on myself. That… was maybe an experience for another post.
Anyway, Niagara was awesome, I live in a really gorgeous part of the country, and I am really happy to have a car so that I can get out and see it!
Speaking of that, Jevon was here a few weekends ago, and we went back to Fallingwater so he could check it out, and so I could try to get a better tour guide this time! I think the trip was a success on both counts.
Okay, that's probably enough from me for now. Two posts in one day, imagine that!
Que le temps passe vite!
Ohhh the shame. Two months since my last update! No blog posts at all in the month of October! I am so, so slacking.
I don't even know what my problem is. It's not like I don't have things to talk about. I'm in a new town, and I really like it, even! I have some new friends, and we do fun stuff sometimes, even! I had an awesome trip up to Niagara Falls to visit my friend from Berkeley, even! And it's not like I'm working so hard that I never have free time or something. Far from it, in fact.
Let's see, what am I up to these days? I'll do a quick update in the next few minutes, and then I'll try to do a post dedicated to Niagara Falls/Buffalo soon.
- I can't write for too long this morning because I am subbing for a friend/colleague who is at a conference this week, and she needs someone to cover her class. So I have to show up and play a movie for some undergrads, and have them fill out attendance cards.
- Speaking of teaching, I have a meeting tomorrow to find out what class I'm teaching next semester. I have my fingers crossed for Intro to Psycholinguistics, but if there's not enough enrollment, I'll be doing First Language Acquisition. Either would be fine, I guess, but I'm hoping for Psycholing because I've never taught it before and I'm more comfortable with the subject material.
- I don't really know where the time goes. I have lots of meetings, and I do lots of reading. I've been writing a lot lately because I'm applying for a grant (due on Monday), and trying to submit a paper for publication before I apply. I'm also applying for two other grants, and probably a job (all in the first week of December - yikes), but I'm not quite thinking about that yet. Before that, I have to finish the grant I'm working on, plus submit this paper, and submit a short response paper, plus I was hoping to have my dissertation stuff submitted somewhere by the end of this month, but that's looking less likely now. I'm presenting a poster at the ASA in San Francisco the first week of December, so making a good poster is my first priority. And I'm giving two talks that week, so I should probably work on those too! See, it sounds like I should be really busy, but I don't really feel that busy.
- I'll be in Berkeley really soon, and I can't wait! I get in on November 25th and am staying until December 9th. Two weeks! Lots of time to hang out, see friends, check out the old haunts. I. can. not. wait.
- But before that, I have a conference in Toronto… a week from today! Whoa! A week from today I will be driving up to Toronto with some folks from my lab group. It's only about 5 1/2 hours (isn't that crazy?) so we're carpooling to save some money. I don't have to present anything at this conference, either - I'm just supposed to hang out and check it out, so that will be pretty fun, I think!
- Umm, I did a half marathon the weekend before last. It was great, actually, but sort of… unceremonious. I finished in two hours even, so I basically met my goal, which was unexpected and awesome. I've been trying to up my running, because I freaking love fall, and I love to be outside enjoying the crisp fall air, but it's been sort of hard when we don't get that much daylight. I've been having a horrible time waking up in the morning… it's a little better now that the time has changed back, and it gets light around 6:45 instead of 7:45. I could conceivably go running in the mornings now, I suppose, but I haven't gotten my act together enough to actually do that.
Well, I'm getting antsy because I have to get ready to head to campus. But I will do a Niagara Falls post soon! And maybe I will talk about my new friends, too. The super short version is that I have three postdoc friends, and they're totally awesome, and I've also gotten a bit closer with my neighbor (whose class I'm covering this morning). So, life is good!
I don't even know what my problem is. It's not like I don't have things to talk about. I'm in a new town, and I really like it, even! I have some new friends, and we do fun stuff sometimes, even! I had an awesome trip up to Niagara Falls to visit my friend from Berkeley, even! And it's not like I'm working so hard that I never have free time or something. Far from it, in fact.
Let's see, what am I up to these days? I'll do a quick update in the next few minutes, and then I'll try to do a post dedicated to Niagara Falls/Buffalo soon.
- I can't write for too long this morning because I am subbing for a friend/colleague who is at a conference this week, and she needs someone to cover her class. So I have to show up and play a movie for some undergrads, and have them fill out attendance cards.
- Speaking of teaching, I have a meeting tomorrow to find out what class I'm teaching next semester. I have my fingers crossed for Intro to Psycholinguistics, but if there's not enough enrollment, I'll be doing First Language Acquisition. Either would be fine, I guess, but I'm hoping for Psycholing because I've never taught it before and I'm more comfortable with the subject material.
- I don't really know where the time goes. I have lots of meetings, and I do lots of reading. I've been writing a lot lately because I'm applying for a grant (due on Monday), and trying to submit a paper for publication before I apply. I'm also applying for two other grants, and probably a job (all in the first week of December - yikes), but I'm not quite thinking about that yet. Before that, I have to finish the grant I'm working on, plus submit this paper, and submit a short response paper, plus I was hoping to have my dissertation stuff submitted somewhere by the end of this month, but that's looking less likely now. I'm presenting a poster at the ASA in San Francisco the first week of December, so making a good poster is my first priority. And I'm giving two talks that week, so I should probably work on those too! See, it sounds like I should be really busy, but I don't really feel that busy.
- I'll be in Berkeley really soon, and I can't wait! I get in on November 25th and am staying until December 9th. Two weeks! Lots of time to hang out, see friends, check out the old haunts. I. can. not. wait.
- But before that, I have a conference in Toronto… a week from today! Whoa! A week from today I will be driving up to Toronto with some folks from my lab group. It's only about 5 1/2 hours (isn't that crazy?) so we're carpooling to save some money. I don't have to present anything at this conference, either - I'm just supposed to hang out and check it out, so that will be pretty fun, I think!
- Umm, I did a half marathon the weekend before last. It was great, actually, but sort of… unceremonious. I finished in two hours even, so I basically met my goal, which was unexpected and awesome. I've been trying to up my running, because I freaking love fall, and I love to be outside enjoying the crisp fall air, but it's been sort of hard when we don't get that much daylight. I've been having a horrible time waking up in the morning… it's a little better now that the time has changed back, and it gets light around 6:45 instead of 7:45. I could conceivably go running in the mornings now, I suppose, but I haven't gotten my act together enough to actually do that.
Well, I'm getting antsy because I have to get ready to head to campus. But I will do a Niagara Falls post soon! And maybe I will talk about my new friends, too. The super short version is that I have three postdoc friends, and they're totally awesome, and I've also gotten a bit closer with my neighbor (whose class I'm covering this morning). So, life is good!
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