Sometimes it feels like just yesterday

Hard to believe it's been 7 years. Never forget.

I love a challenge

My supervisor is going on vacation in 10 days, they will be gone for 2 weeks, two days after they return (to this country!) they have to fly to a really important meeting and present the project I'm currently working on. Oh, and they return on a long weekend so we won't even be in the office between when they get back to the country and when they have to fly out for the meeting.

In the mean time, in order for my supervisor to do this I need to...

1. Write one proposal (for which we've just started doing the literature and data search for this week).
2. Revise one report, decide what we want to do for a follow up to that report and write a short proposal for that follow up.
   
3. Do a literature and data search for 2 other topics and write up annotated bibliographies for both of them.

I will have help from my team, but they are all busy with other tasks as well that take precedence over my project. My supervisor is also going to help me as much as possible before they leave for vacation.

I don't feel stressed. It will be tight and if I get all of this done then it is the ideal situation and my supervisor and the people that they are presenting to will be VERY, VERY happy. If I get most of this done, they'll still be content. My goal is of course to get it all done, and have most of it done before my supervisor leaves.

I guess it's time for me to start showing what I'm worth. :)

You can't scare me.

I really thought I'd go on the academic job market this year... but it doesn't look like that will be the case.

I have had my eye on the job ads as they come out through the list servs I belong to and on discipline or academic webpages but there's nothing that has made my heart jump. There is even a job that I applied for last year, the search was cancelled due to lack of funding, but I was encouraged by the search chair to apply again this year and it was posted a couple of months ago but... I'm just not feeling it.

I think I needed to tell myself that I could/would go on the academic job market so that taking a non-academic position would be less scary. Now that I'm in the world of non-academia, I wonder what the hell I was so scared about. So far (admittedly only 3 weeks), I am loving my new job. I am working with smart people, doing cool work, in a productive environment. I leave here at 4:30-5:00 every night without an ounce of guilt, I don't even remotely check my email. I know that if anything comes in I can deal with it in the AM or on Monday. I can't remember the last time I felt this secure. It won't always be this way, sometimes we'll have busy times with tight deadlines and I'll be working nights/weekends. But there is flexibility here that goes along with that, like comp time and working from home.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not scared anymore. I am settling in and really enjoying my life right now. Things are good.

New favorite food...

Been having allergy issues that have lead to pure exhaustion, so mustering as much posting energy as I can come up with today I'd like to tell you about my new favorite foods....

Fresh Mozzarella and tomato salad, with a little olive oil and basil.

We're having it with chicken tonight. I had it for lunch the other day with some crusty bread.

Can't wait for DH to get home.

Fall Traditions

The only thing that lifts my spirits about the ending of summer, is the beginning of FOOTBALL season. Baseball is still my #1 sport, but football is a close second.

I like College Football (well my grad school's football team anyway), but I love NFL football. Needless to say DH and I do not get very much work done during the Fall season as we spend Saturday's watching college ball and Sunday's watching the NFL.

Although DH and I are both huge football fans, we actually support opposing teams. He's a NFC guy and I am all about the AFC, so it's fine.... until postseason. Fall/Winter Sunday's have really become quite the tradition in our house. We both wear football jerseys, and in the morning we make a huge meal (typically it's something in the crockpot or some sort of soup) that will last for both lunch and dinner and then we sit in front of the TV and watch and eat and drink beer (has to beer when it comes to football!). When I was in grad school I used to go work at the coffee shop from 8:30am-12:30pm, just to do some work before the game started. Moving back home to the Northeast last year we started having Sunday's at my sister's house. We'd still cook the big meal (now even bigger), we'd just either make it at her house or bring it with us. I am looking forward to getting these traditions underway again this Sunday. And even more so when we move into our new house.

Not much to tell.

I've been busy with the house and ANJ so haven't had much time to write any thoughtful posts.

Things are moving along with the house. Settled on a mortgage person yesterday so all we're waiting for is the appraisal which should be in any day now and then we're all set to close on the 30th.

I was just given a really interesting project at ANJ. It's a two phase research project and I am basically going to take over phase 2. So I'll be spending the next few days getting acquainted with phase 1 and brainstorming ideas for how to tackle phase 2. The nice part is that this project isn't promised to anyone for another year so I can take my time and get to know it.

I have two on-going collaborations going on outside of ANJ that I have been moving forward on. One, we're in the process of gathering materials and writing the IRB. The other we are in the design stage. Yay for research.

That's all I have to report for now. I need to finish breakfast and get to work.

Long Weekend

We have tried to really make the best of the last long weekend of the summer.

Friday- we signed the purchase and sales agreement on our new house. Then we just hung out at home, watched some baseball and went to bed early after a crazy stressful couple of weeks.

Saturday- we slept in a bit. Went to my sisters so she could cut DH's hair, went to the grocery store and came back home and watched some baseball.

Sunday- we went to the beach and it was really windy! So we decided to head to my sisters house (with a pool) and spent the rest of the day there drinking rum punch and enjoying the pool. I overindulged in the rum punch and went to bed as soon as we got home.

Monday- we slept in again. We paid the bills and gave our landlord notice that we're moving out. Then we took the dogs for a hike at a local reservation. Finally, we went to my sisters for a labor day BBQ and we headed home early to relax a bit for work tomorrow.

YAY for 4 day work weeks!!