Wednesday, January 6, 2010

New Year...New Job...Different Goals

It's another year, and while I could say that one resolution is to blog more often, it's not. Since writing has never been an aspiration but rather an outlet for frustration, I've never been one to write when things are going well. It seems too much like bragging. However, since it is a new year, and it has started out with some big changes, I figured it was worth an entry.

At the end of December, I left my first post-doc; at the beginning of January, I started a new post-doc. So far, three days in, I'm enjoying the new job fairly well. While the camaraderie isn't really there yet, I've met a lot of nice people so far all more than willing to help. The project is interesting, and I definitely have a bunch to learn. I'm currently working on reading a bunch of papers to get up to speed in the field. I'm hoping to learn a lot from this experience and I'm very optimistic about this job.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Decisions and Changes

This past weekend, I made up my mind about somethings that are potentially big and life altering. Jeremy and I discussed it, and we both liked the ideas. The timeline's not set in stone, but we didn't find any glaring holes or issues with feasibility. I'm not going to elaborate any more on it because we're not sure any of it will work out the way we plan. A lot of it is contingent on something I'm working on now and which path we take. Needless to say, I'm actually more excited than scared because of how dramatically life will change. I'm going to embrace change instead of fretting about it and trust in God about the direction we're choosing.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Amazing

My husband amazes me. I have been with him through some very hard times where there was nothing I could do but sit on the sidelines and offer words of encouragement. I've also been there with him when things aren't just going great, they are going splendidly. Through it all, I'm wowed by his poise and his determination.

He decided several days ago that he was seriously considering graduate school. He told me his decision on Monday morning. In my mind, he'd decided this, and we were going to start looking into options and processes. In actuality, he'd found the programs and had started on the applications. As I sit here on Friday, he's filled out all the applications, looked into getting official transcripts and started thinking about the GRE. His goals for this weekend is to finish the essays, get the recommendations needed for each program, and take at least one practice GRE.

Normally, this frenetic pace of activity would be my mo. He's usually more laid back with a slower pace for life. Instead, he's taken it upon himself to do all this and remain motivated. He explained his reasoning to me last night, and I am totally behind him in his pursuits. I just never thought that he would want to go back to school after what it took to get him through school in the first place.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Traveling

It's been awhile since Jeremy and I have been on vacation, and I'd forgotten how nice it is to get away. We promised ourselves that once we were married, we'd travel and vacation more. That hasn't really been the case. Sure, we go out of town, but it hasn't really been vacations as much as going out of town.

While there are plenty of places I'd like to see in the US, I think I'm going to plan a mega trip to Europe. I can't decide if I want to take many 1 week trips or maybe devote say 3 weeks to the venture and see everything at once. Then there's the issue of going to cities that I've been to already but want to share with Jeremy. I'd like to go to Paris with Jeremy, but France is low on the list for him. Also, while I'd like to see historical sites, museums aren't high on my list.

So far, the destinations I'd like to go to include the UK (mainly London), France (Paris/Nice), Germany, Italy, and maybe some Eastern European countries. If this is all in one trip, it'll be a very exhausting, on the go trip, but I don't think we'd regret it. I know that if I'm staying in a city for a week, I tend to not go out and sightsee with the same urgency. I don't think I want to do a guided tour thing but rather hope on the train and see the sights. I wonder if I could get a bunch of people to travel with us or if it would be better to do this on our own.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Good Friday

I had the opportunity to have lunch with Jeremy today. He had the day off and we got to spend 30 minutes enjoying each other's company in the middle of the day. While we spend a lot of time together, it was a nice out of routine event.

Life's been good. Experiments have been working well, so it's been extra busy at work (which I really like). It does get very tiring though.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Peace

After the last few days of limbo, I have found a semblance of peace over this basketball situation. I don't mind that the coach left for another school. I am happy for the good times we had the last several seasons. Had he simply just left though I would have remembered him for the great times and as a good coach. However, it seems like he strung the boosters and the school along in order to contact his recruits before he officially took the new job and barred from contacting them and used these same players as leverage to convince us to let him pick his replacement. Now instead of being thought of as the savior of the program, he's shown himself to be someone who cares very little of how he's thought of in the city. It remains to be seen as to where we go from here. I have certain coaches I'd like to see hired, and there are coaches that I would loathe to see fill the position. We'll also see how the players situation plays out. I don't want to see this program fade into mediocrity, but it is time for the administration to step up in a big way if they want the continued support of the avid fans. For now, I'm going to keep up with the news, but what's done is done.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

College Basketball

This post is going to be more of a rant about the state of Tigers basketball and Tigers sports in general, so feel free to skip it if it doesn't interest you.

The shitstorm that has been stirred up in the last few days has been epic. It started with the coach publicly stating that there is no way he's leaving the university for a more prominent program. Then, over the weekend, rumors started that he had in fact flown to said school to discuss terms with the officials there. Our AD came out and said the rumors were untrue and he never gave the other school permission to speak to our coach. On Monday, our AD states on record that he's given permission for the other school to speak to our coach.

I understand that this is the way of college athletics. If you are a good coach, you will be courted by every school under the sun. I also fully understand that $6 million is a lot of money and even though you are already a millionaire, it's a huge raise. That being said, there is a classy way to go about contract negotiations. The basketball program has once again reached the level of national recognition, and the coach had a lot to do with it. Do I think he's going to stay forever? Well, no, I'm not that naive. Had I found out yesterday that he was leaving, I would've wished him the best of luck, even though I was sick to my stomach over it.

However, in the wake of the negotiations with the other school, it came out that he was likely going to take not only the incoming recruits, but he was also working on getting releases for current players so they could all follow him to the new school. If you want to leave our program for a new one because it is better for you and your family, that's fine. It is however very classless to gut our program in the process. I understand that with any coaching change that some players decide to leave and go elsewhere. That's fine. If they don't want to play here, again, I wish them well. However, if you are using the current players as a threat to get your way, then that's lower than low. I don't care if it's done elsewhere. The behavior is wrong, and it shouldn't be something that's condoned, and if our AD even considers releasing the players to leave with the coach, he needs to get his head examined. We may as well just dismantle the entire program right now.

The negotiations are still ongoing. The big boosters have gotten together to negotiate the deal. While I applaud their efforts, this brings me to another issue I have. Last spring and fall, there was a huge fan initiative to get the university to build a football stadium on campus. Many donors were willing to give to see this happen. We were all told that there was no way $10 million could be raised over the course of a few years to fund this. Last night, 3 big donors got together and raised that amount to try to keep the coach. Now, I understand that our football program is not anywhere close to where it needs to be, but I'm sorry, football will more likely get us into a BCS league before basketball.

That all being said, Jeremy and I have come to a hard decision. We want to support Tigers athletics, but in these tough economic times, we really have to examine closely where our money goes. While I love the players and I do believe they go out and try their hardest, I have never been a huge basketball fan. These latest events surrounding the program have left a bad taste in my mouth and while I want the university to succeed and athletics to do well, we have to decide how best to use our money. I would like to keep our season tickets to basketball, and with a coaching change, that may not be too hard. However, we're thinking about minimizing our scholarship fund donations. Because he's just graduated, the university will match, so there's no reason to donate as much. Instead, the money we would've been donating to the general scholarship fund, we'll turn around and donate directly to the football program. I would like nothing more than to mail in a check each month designating the money specifically to football with a note saying that I am no longer supporting any other programs until the administration gets its but in gear.

Monday, March 30, 2009

It's Over

The title very neatly describes the events in my life recently that has culminated in a sigh of relief and a splitting headache.

My brother's visit ended Saturday, and to say I'm a little sad to see him go is understating it a bit. While I'm sure he felt the week was slightly underwhelming in the form of entertainment, it was more activity that either me or Jeremy are used to on school nights. Yes, we are old and boring, but hopefully we managed to not totally ruin his vacation. As Jeremy put it, his visit gave us another person to stare at. After we took him to the airport Saturday morning, Jeremy and I came home and absolutely crashed. I spent the better part of 2 days napping on the couch, trying fitfully to sleep through a migraine.

Another activity I am happy to say is at an end is unpacking. Yes, we are officially finished with the chaos that was box killing. Now, cleaning and laundry are unending tasks in my life, but at least, I no longer have to spend hours trying to find new places for things that seem to have homes in our old apartment. Which brings me to question that I've been pondering. Our apartment in Memphis was a 2BR apartment. Our current apartment is a 2BR. Somehow, we seem to have less room here even though the square footage here is larger. We had even gotten rid of a lot of furniture before we moved. I fully believe that there was a worm hole in one of our former closets that allowed for the storage and retrieval of little used items.

College basketball also ended this weekend, much to our dismay. We had hoped to travel to Detroit to watch the Final Four, but alas that was not meant to be. This leaves us fans also in limbo as to whether our coach will return next year. I hope that this current hoopla is his way of negotiating a better contract, but I am not holding out too much hope. Very disappointing.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Busy

My brother arrived safely, and we've been on the go since. After an exciting weekend of basketball, we have a full schedule of eating out and watching movies. It's nice to have someone visit, and it's unbelievably nice to have a clean apartment. We've actually done a really nice job keeping things organized on a day by day basis.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Ten Years

Last year, Jeremy and I decided that we were going to start celebrating only our wedding anniversary. We figured that it would be the more important date instead of the day we originally started dating. That being said, we realized a few weeks ago that in fact this dating anniversary was a big one. We have officially been together as a couple for ten years. Happy Anniversary, baby. I can't even imagine that length of time. It boggles the mind because I don't consciously feel that old.

We were talking the other day about college sports and we were remarking that we weren't old enough to actively be involved in booster clubs that get to host players and such because they are our peers. Only after we said that did we come to realize that we are now a decade older than most college students. Sure, I physically feel old sometimes especially when it's been a long day, but I didn't mentally feel like I was that old. It was a weird realization.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Life is Good

Our friends in Memphis just welcomed their new baby girl into the world today. Congrats to them! We can't wait to meet her, but she'll be almost a year old by the time we see her.

Last night, Jeremy and I officially finished cleaning our apartment. It was actually easier than I had imagined even though it seemed a daunting task. I guess the marathon cleaning that we'd embarked on all month paid off. A little vacuuming tonight will finish everything off. We can't wait until my brother gets here tomorrow. This will be the first visitor we've had since we officially moved in.

The weather here is beautiful, and Spring seems to be officially here even though it's going to be a little chilly this weekend. I really needed the sun to come out. It has been very uplifting.

Tigers play their first NCAA game today. I can't listen to it today because of a meeting, but I hope they play well. Go Tigers!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Spring

Today will be an unseasonably warm spring day, and I wish I were out to enjoy it. On days like these, I really miss being in college. It is one of the only time when you can skip a day of school and not really worry about the repercussions and enjoy a beautiful day.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Cajun Meatloaf

I made a Cajun style meatloaf last night, and it was very yummy. It will definitely be made again, but with a few changes. I couldn't find regular ground pork so I ended up using sausage, and it although it was good, it didn't mesh with the beef. I would also probably halve the recipe. I now have this huge slab of meat in my fridge. We will be eating meatloaf for awhile. Unfortunately, because of the sausage and not enough breadcrumbs, the meatloaf doesn't hold together well enough for meatloaf sandwiches, but it is very good nonetheless.

Monday, March 16, 2009

It's Been Awhile

I haven't posted anything for awhile because I'd been in a funk physically, emotionally, and professionally. It wasn't anything earth-shattering, but had I posted, it would have been one whiny post after another and nobody needs that. Not to say that nothing good had happened in the last few weeks because that's not entirely true. The bad would have overshadowed everything.

That being said, I'm ready to begin writing about my life again. My brother is visiting next week, so it's lit a fire under our butts to actually finish the little things that we've been putting off. After spending a chunk of money getting the last things for the apartment, we are just about done. It is a nice feeling to look around and see everything the way I want it. The down side of the manic cleaning this weekend is the muscle pain that comes with climbing up and down the stairs a million times. My legs haven't hurt like this in a long time.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Getting in the Groove

I haven't been very good at blogging lately because honestly, nothing significant has happened. I will say though that there is nothing nicer than payday.

When I first started grad school, it was the first real significant paycheck. I had worked previously, but the money didn't really amount to much since I wasn't working full time. Having a steady income with very few expenses was nice. When Jeremy and I got married, we felt like our income doubled. We were only paying one set of utilities and one rent, so it was like we got a raise while really making the same amount of money.

While we were anticipating the move, we started saving money like crazy in anticipation of having only one income. For awhile, it seemed like we were only living on one income even though we were both working.

Now, we both have jobs that actually pay money, and I look at our bank account and think, wow! It's actually kind of nice to have money in savings while not having to scrimp on every day things. While we're not just blowing the extra money on luxury items, we haven't had to worry as much about finances. We are also in a place where we can finally save for the future. Maybe we'll buy a house in the next few years. Maybe we'll go on an extensive vacation. Maybe Jeremy will go back to school. Regardless, it's nice to be able to put away money and still live comfortably.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Elevators

I've had several bad encounters with elevators, but none were as harrowing as yesterday. I got to work around 8:30 and got in an elevator to go up 4 floors. As the elevator started going up, it just stopped suddenly and quit moving. I tried calling for help with the call button, but nobody picked up and I was unsure that it even worked. Thank goodness that my cell phone had signal and a coworker was in the lab. She went and found the security guard and the both of them got me out of the elevator. It wasn't a fun way to start the day to be sure.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Paella

For some reason, I've been craving rice. At first, I thought I was craving Chinese food because I would need to get a certain dish at my now favorite Chinese restaurant. Now though, I think it's just the rice. Yesterday, for some unknown reason, I really wanted to find a restaurant with paella. No reason. Nothing reminded me of it. It just all of a sudden hit me that paella would be good. Tomorrow, Jeremy and I are off to find us some good Spanish food.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Current Events

I've been reading several newspapers a day lately, and the general theme I see is outrage. Outrage about the economy, outrage about politics, and outrage about sports figures. Regardless of what issue du jour, the outrage always boils down to what "our children's generation." The economy must be fixed for our children, we need change because our children deserve better, our kids need better role models. Our kids need more and better from the government.

The school districts here are pushing for more sex education. On the news the other day, a mom driving her 19 year old daughter to college brought up how much sex ed her daughter received in high school, and her daughter told her they were only taught abstinence. The mother was shocked and outraged that her daughter wasn't taught safe sex. While I agree that kids should learn about alternatives to abstinence in school, it's about time parents take some responsibility as well. If you don't talk about sex with your child until they are 19, the problem lies as much with you as the school. While I agree abstinence should be emphasized, let's be honest. Teenagers will have sex. It happens and while I don't personally condone it, I'd want my child to be as knowledgeable and protected as possible. That responsibility falls to me as a parent. Yes, it's embarrassing for both parties, but that's why you're the parent.

Another article I read spoke on the outrage parents are feeling about the Michael Phelps/pot and A-Rod/steroids issue. It made a point that the parents that are all outraged about this should take a long look at their kids. No child is so insulated that they are unaware of drugs, and the kids that the parents seek to protect no longer exist in this society. My problem with the outrage is that parents are looking to public figures to be the role model for their kids. When I was growing up, I didn't hope to emulate a sports star or an actress. I wanted to grow up and be successful like my parents. They were my role models. I think the fact that public figures are fallible makes a great conversation starter. It allows parents to show their kids that a) people make mistakes and b) drugs aren't the answer. Instead, these athletes are criticized for being human and not perfect.

I am not implying in any way that raising children is an easy task. I know it's daunting to have to teach and mold a child into an adult. However, asking others to raise your kids and not taking responsibility seems like a cop-out.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

One Step Forward

Last night we officially finished putting together the office. Now, our apartment isn't totally put back together, but I can say that I no longer have to stress about it. Overall though, we've accomplished a lot. We have to hang a few more things on the walls and there are a few more knick knacks to find a place for, but overall, it's more maintenance now than unpacking. It's a relief. I know that we've been here for almost six months now, but we were in a catch-22 of sorts for the first four months. We couldn't unpack until we bought some furniture that we decided to leave in Memphis. We couldn't buy furniture until Jeremy found a job, but once he found a job, he wasn't at home with plenty of time to help unpack.

The apartment is finally starting to feel somewhat like home though. We're not the neatest people in the world, so it still seems kinda cluttered, but we're slowly getting to a point where we don't need to come home and worry about chores. I am looking forward to the day when we can come home, eat dinner and relax on the couch.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Sloth

Sometimes I have so much stuff to do at home that nothing ever gets done. That was kind of this weekend in terms of chores. Jeremy and I fully enjoyed our Valentines Day festivities. We didn't end up going ice skating because we spent 2 hours at dinner. It was very yummy and it wasn't as expensive as I was expecting. We didn't drink though, so that probably cut down on the cost quite a bit.

Sunday though, I spent being lazy on the couch. I caught up on all of the shows we'd recorded in the past week, but the bed in the office wasn't put together. I just didn't have the motivation to do it. Jeremy said that he'd help me with it this week though, so maybe we'll get it done before the weekend. It should be very straight forward.

While I was being lazy, Jeremy had a very productive weekend. He cleaned up the living room and even vacuumed. I really appreciated that since it was entirely his own idea and I had nothing to do with it.