just a short share

i found this today and i really like it. i think that it sounds like something that my grandpa would have said :)

quick post to share

i'm in my second day post surgery - doing well, but still trying to limit my time in front of a computer screen. it's amazing to be able to see without glasses or contacts.

anyway, in the wake of Newtown and all of the impending legislation re: gun violence, this article just came out in one of our relatively high-profile journals. it's a pretty interesting discussion of some of the different factors that have been proposed to contribute to gun violence in the US. it covered a lot of things that that i'd been wondering about and i thought it was worth a share.

chicks dig lasers

this conversation actually happened with my doctor, one of the fellows at the UW vision center:

dr: a few days after the surgery, you may find that your eyes are more red than you're used to, you're experiencing dryness. . . or some slight discomfort. . .

me (giggling): because you just shot lasers into them?

dr: . . . uh, yeah. i guess that does seem kind of intuitive, doesn't it?

that's right. i'm signed up for LASIK. i'm giving myself the gift of sight. and i'm really, really excited about it. i've been thinking about it for a while and did a consultation in the fall after UW offered the procedure to its faculty and staff for half the cost. then, when we were in jamaica and i had to ration out my disposable lenses based on whether or not i wanted to take a nap during the afternoon. . . or when we did the rope swing and i came up out of the water trying to dislodge the contact lens that had shifted to the outside of my eye. . .i realized that if we're going to live an active lifestyle (thank you, bozeman!), this will make things immeasurably easier. and far less worrysome.

so, i've been doing some research on how LASIK works. it's actually really interesting. from what i understand, it essentially uses lasers to reshape your cornea. why does that improve vision? well, this is why:

even better, my surgery is going to be blade free. it has something to do with creating the "flap"with lasers and bubbles rather than a blade. this is fine by me. from what i can tell, you can see a lot more of an actual LASIK surgery than you want to on YouTube. i do not want to watch eye surgery on YouTube, but i do think that this one minute cartoon gets the gist of it across.

according to the American Academy of Opthamology and the Eye Surgery Education Council,  approximately 700,000 LASIK surgeries are performed every year. LASIK has the highest patient satisfaction rate (95.4%) of any elective surgery. the majority of patients enjoy 20/20 vision or better post surgery. most LASIK patients are able to return to work the next day, though not for jobs that necessitate high visual acuity (i.e., you're a surgeon).

and if you're paying the price that i'm paying for LASIK vs. what i typically spend on contact lenses and contact lens supplies, the surgery pays for itself well within five years.

i'll need to use drops (antibiotics to fight infection, steroids to help with healing, and lubricating drops for the dryness) for a while. and i'll of course need to be careful about getting things in my eyes early on, but recovery really is supposed to be quick. paula has volunteered to make sure that i'm well taken care of should anything crazy come up. my plan is to have hear take me to the clinic on the 20th, bring me home, and then sleep until i feel better. or until i go back to the doctor the next day.

you'll likely be able to track the speed of my recovery by how quickly i am back on e-mail and facebook.

Job Search Update #2: The decision

As Lebron would put it, we're taking our talents to Montana State University. We're so excited. We're both on the tenure track, will be living in the same house, and will be housed in the same department. We're so, super thankful for all of the offers that we had, but this really seemed/seems like the best fit for us. There are still some things to work out re: my start date (it looks like my grant might actually be funded - yay!), but next year at this time we should be one of those "traditional" couples that live in the same city. crazy, huh?

so, what is this "bozeman" place? so far as we can tell, it's a mix of academics, former hippies, cowboys, and nature lovers. oh, and - in the summer - people visiting yellowstone. what sounds exciting about that? well, let us fill you in. . .

1. Boz Angeles: This nickname was bestowed in the last decade, as more and more Californians and celebrities started heading toward Big Sky Country. John Mayer hails from here. Rumor has it that Johnny Depp and the Jolie-Pitts have homes as well, though their sightings appear less frequently. People regularly see the likes of Michael Keaton, David Letterman, and other names that I always recognize when Matt says them, but never remember myself.


2. The out-of-doors: How's this photo look to you?  ->

Not too shabby, eh?

That's what we thought. And you'll see what they do with all of that space if you google Bozeman paired with any of the following: running, hiking, fishing, canoe, kayak, bike, trail, parks, skiing, snowshoe, well. . . .you get the idea. We are SO excited about the opportunities for playing out of doors. We are even more excited to learn that you can rent most of the necessary equipment from the University. In an unexpected way, my joining the winter running program here turns out to even more beneficial, as my former attitude about staying inside all winter long (out of necessity) is slowing changing. Slowly.

3. The "City": It's no secret that I'm more drawn to the city lights and Matt would prefer a more secluded existence. We're realizing more and more that Bozeman presents a really nice opportunity to compromise on this. We can live close enough to places that walking or biking to work/lunch/etc. - and generally being around people - remains plausible. However, we'll be in a small enough place that everyone isn't right on top of each other, people have yards, and nature is still just a few steps away. I'm not going to lie, though, I'm still holding out hope that an H&M might show up at some point. As is Matt, I'm sure, that we end up living next to a stream in a forest with friendly wildlife as neighbors :)

4. Montana has no sales tax. I don't think I need to explain how or why that is awesome.

5. Local eats: We are slowly learning more and more about how self-sustained life can apparently be in Bozeman. Not for me, of course, because I know nothing about catching or cooking food (though I do remember being in our garden when I was little), but for people with more knowledge about such things. There is a whole list of CSAs in the Bozeman area, Matt found this place that stocks kinds of fresh fish that I've never even heard of (but don't click on the "home" link. the pictures are not good.), and neither one of us hit a local restaurant that we didn't like.

6. An airport!: Given how much I've come to love having the Madison airport only 2.5 miles away, I'm super excited for Matt to understand how awesome it is to not have the drive to the airport take over an hour.  My family (and Karen) should note the direct flights to/from Minneapolis. Matt's family (and Kara) should note the "word on the street" that Southwest is thinking of joining the Boz team.

downtown bozeman

7. Local events: As it turns out, downtown Bozeman has a pretty active social life. There are  lots of regular happenings, including weekly music and drinks on main street. To add to the draw, main street is freaking adorable and littered with independent local businesses. We like all of these things.

Obviously, this is not an inclusive list. And everything is secondary to the excitement that we feel about FINALLY being able to live and work in the same place. But we are pretty pumped about what 2013 will be bringing us. Not that 2010 - 2012 were devoid of major life events. But, you know, this is definitely one that we have been waiting for for a while!

Job Search Update #1: The Airborne Adventures

okay, it's probably time now for the recounting. if i remember correctly, our first job applications were due in september, which is why it feels like we've been at this forever. my first e-mail to schedule a phone interview came to me as i was stopped for lunch on my way back to iowa to get married. in person interviews started at the end of october/beginning of november. the first offers came at the end of november/beginning of december. and we are still working on wrapping things up. i suspect that i could write an entire blog on the impracticality of that timeline. on how insane it seems to me that people can interview for jobs, give a two-week notice and then start a new job all in the same month.

i interviewed at five places. true to form, i only got pictures from three of the five. with the exception of the time that we etched out for the hilliard-starr wedding in november, all of my interviews ran back-to-back. and in fact, i went to lacey's wedding from an interview and flew out of texas to another interview. i think if i was still little that would sound like a pretty exciting life. it wasn't. it was exhausting. and i got sick. though matt and i kept reminding ourselves: an exhausting, busy life during "interview season" is something to be grateful for. it would have been a whole different type of stress to be hearing nothing, going nowhere and wondering if we would ever be living in the same state.

villanova and concordia (montreal, not minnesota :) were the two places that i didn't get any pictures from. well, that's not entirely true. apparently, the only thing i felt the time and/or the drive to snap a picture of in montreal was my bathroom. i forget now why. perhaps because it was half the size of my current apartment, the tub was huge, and there was a tv inside of it. but i can't totally recall.

and even though there are no pictures, it's safe to say that i came back from villanova with one of the best stories, as i got sinus infection during my stay there and one of the evenings the department chair took me to CVS, where i proceeded to buy almost $30 of cold/sinus products that i hoped would get me through the interview the following day. i felt awesome. even more awesome than when we went out to dinner in montreal and i couldn't read any of the menu because it was all in french. BUT, nobody made me feel bad or awkward about any of that. and it's a good illustration of how nice people were throughout. at every site, really, people were welcoming and kind, and seemed generally interested in who i am, the work i am doing, and how i might fit into their department. fit is, in fact, the name of the game. in truth, by the time that you interview, everyone is equally qualified. it primarily seems as though departments want to make sure (1) you aren't crazy, (2) that you have a plan for what you'll do when you get there, and (3) your work overlaps enough with what other people are doing that you'll have things to talk about/work on together - but doesn't overlap so much that you're "just another person XX."

the arch at UGA

which probably makes this a good time to say that these were the two places that i didn't get offers from. they found people who were better fits for them, which i totally get. i still feel like i met a lot of cool people and i honestly hope that i will be running into them again.

the other three sites, i did get to snap some pictures of. football fans will recognize this arch from the university of georgia. i actually ended up with quite a few pictures from georgia because i was there twice. once for my interview and once on a return visit at the same time that matt interviewed. (aside: this is going to seem ridiculous [because it kind of is], but the general way that this works for couples in academia is that when a school makes one person an offer, that person will let them know that s/he also has a partner who needs an offer. in our case, that means we would both want/need tenure-track positions (as opposed to teaching/lecturer positions or clinic positions, etc.). that then becomes part of the negotiation/decision-making process. sounds crazy, i know, but what else would you expect from a world that has informally dubbed this the "two body problem?")

Sanford Stadium

i also got a picture of their football stadium. because. . . well, duh.

the other two sites were on mountain time. as it turns out, our families (with the exception of my sisters who both have romantic visions of moving to states with warmer climates) were really rooting for one of these westward locales. i did not see that coming, though i should appreciate that heading west would seem more like a vacation for matt's family (who live relatively close to the east coast) and that i have pretty much exhausted my family's willingness to drive east for a full day to see me. . . well, me and the PSU creamery.

from my hotel room in Salt Lake City

out west, we went to the university of utah (salt lake city) and montana state university (bozeman). we actually loved both of these sites. enamored, really, with the mountains from the moment we got off of the plan to the moment we took off to head back home. lucky for us (and for our families, apparently), the people were super nice at both of these places as well. both the faculty and the students. and, just as matt was hoping for, they took us to some really lovely places to eat while we were visiting.

from my hotel in Bozeman (during snowfall)

it quickly became clear to us that we were interested in lives that would contain some sort of outdoor activities. we love(d) the idea of having parks, rivers, and hiking nearby. as an added bonus, SLC would have an NBA team and Bozeman would have both a handful of famous residents each summer. both locations have multiple national parks at less than a day's drive away. and both sites definitely piqued matt's interest in fly fishing, which i was not - at the beginning - even aware was a part of our job search.

aside from a warm, friendly faculty and two tenure-track jobs, the following also made the list of "somewhat important factors to consider for where we want to life" (each running a distant second, of course, to the idea that we could actually be living together): a garage, a deck, a young and vibrant neighborhood (where our neighbors don't live too close), yummy local pizza, places to eat outside, farmers' markets, outdoor activities that can be done in all seasons (seriously, we talked about snowshoeing for the first time), local breweries, getting to see - but not having to wrestle with - wildlife, the proximity of the closest H&M, local sales tax, airport access, the local music scene, and how much people would want to come see us. we also had some conversations about mortgaging homes that i still don't totally understand. . . but apparently these are the things that we want for our nonprofessional grown-up life.

who knew?

winter warriors and worriers

i'm about six weeks into my winter running program and i am hungry. this happened in the fall, too, as my body got used to using more and more energy over the weeks. it was a little tough to get going again after a wedding- and job-search-induced "break," but it does feel good to be active again. it feels cold, but it feels good. . .

skaters and hockey players in the park

you know what else i've noticed? there are a lot of people outside here in the winter. even when it's cold, i always see people skating, running, playing in the snow. . . honestly the other day i saw a woman whose dogs were pulling her on a sled. it was like she was having her own little iditarod right here in my neighborhood. but those ducks (yep, those up there in the top picture) are always the happiest beings on my runs. i've been using a new route that takes me under some of the bigger streets here and it goes right along that river. no matter how cold or how windy, those ducks are always out and about, splashing around, and "honking" up a storm. good for them.

running is just one of the things that it getting back into a normal routine now that job search stuff is wrapped/wrapping up. matt and i owe everyone a huge update on that and i promise that it's coming soon. right now it just feels good to be back to work (i've already submitted the revision of my dissertation manuscript for [*hopefully*] publication), and not preparing job talks, trips, etc., etc. i'd forgotten what it feels like when your work responsibilities only include working.

probably we should celebrate by going back to jamaica. :)

side note: if you continue to pay attention to the type of work that i do, you'll hear me talk at some point about stress, life stress, and stress in the lives of children. stress is so, so bad for us. however, there are some pretty amazing strides being made as of late (though some of them have taken a hit based on stereotypes :/ ). anyway. . . this article from the new york times got passed along to me yesterday and i thought it was really interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/magazine/why-can-some-kids-handle-pressure-while-others-fall-apart.html?smid=pl-share

as you might imagine, i have had a few worrisome things on my mind lately. and as my mom will attest, i worried a lot about tests in school. (not so much basic skills tests, but more the other ones). now, we should all remain cognizant one gene will never be "the answer" to anything (well, almost never), but it's an interesting way to get an understanding of how these things work. obviously nobody is going to worry or not worry because of dopamine, but at least we're getting a better idea of what the system is (think "i feel sick" vs. "i have a massive headache that i can feel right behind my eyeball" see how one gives you a much better idea of what's going on/what might be wrong?). and, after about one page of reading, you'll probably know where you fall on the dopamine-clearing scale. . .