It has been a crazy couple of weeks since I last posted. Has it been a couple of weeks since I last posted? I don't know because I don't have internet access right now and am typing this to post later. I know it's longer than a couple of days and shorter than a couple of months, but aside from that it's been too crazy to keep track of time. The things that have kept us so busy: my FINAL DAYS IN THE FIELD, a frenzied few days in the lab counting everything I brought in from the field, a family trip to Mill Valley to celebrate finishing up all that science and run a Double Dipsea and go to a wedding, and a trip to New Mexico for me to present all that science I just finished up at the Ecological Society. WOW. It sounds even crazier than it was. Or maybe not. It was pretty crazy.
Working backwards, I just gave my talk today, which is why I'm able to finally sit down and reflect on happenings over the past week. It went very well, I thought. My parents are here at the meeting with me, and have been taking care of Jack while I was working on my talk right up until I gave it (despite thinking I was done with a whole day to spare). We checked him into the on-site daycare during my session so my parents could actually see my talk (I didn't think Jack would find it interesting because not enough things to stick in his mouth were involved). And now I get to actually enjoy the rest of the meeting before Danny joins us on Thursday night to do a little southwestern family adventure over the weekend. Here in Albuquerque, Jack has already enjoyed several trips to the swimming pool, where he showed off his frog kick to all who would watch, and a visit to a pizzeria where they gave him a ball of dough to play with, which he thought was the coolest toy he's seen yet. Messy, but that's the best kind, right?
So we came here on Sunday and the day before that we were in Mill Valley at our friends' wedding--Jack's first wedding, and he was very well behaved. That photo of him in the yellow hat was taken during the ceremony. Have you seen a kid happier about people getting married? What a sweetie pie. Danny and I were meanwhile relieved he didn't require more bouncing to keep himself placated because we were a little worn out from our run. We may or may not be running the Golden Hills Marathon in October and have been training for it by going on very hilly trail runs because it is a very hilly marathon (5000 feet total elevation gain!). As far as I'm concerned, though, I've already passed a major milestone, marathon or no marathon, because all those times Danny ran the Double Dipsea I thought that was something I would never ever do. Those heady days of excessive exercise are behind me, I thought. And then, after I had Jack, I thought, why should that be? I'm not that old yet! I've still got some excessiveness in me!
We took my parents up to Mill Valley with us on Friday so we could get a jump on the day on Saturday, and stayed at the cutest little B&B overlooking said valley and the headlands behind it. Actually it wasn't a B&B so much as an in-law apartment but we had our own private space and our own little deck, on which my parents and Danny and I enjoyed a very extravagant dinner Friday night after we got Jack to sleep. We had to celebrate my busting my butt and actually getting everything done, concluding the data-collection phase of my phd.
I guess I shouldn't take too much credit for the butt-busting, since I literally couldn't have done it without my parents. You know how when you leave home and you think you're on your own now and you don't have to rely on your parents anymore? It turns out that's not really true. My mom took care of Jack so that my dad and I could move faster through the field sites, for both the putting the experiment out and the taking it back in. We stayed down in Pacific Grove and took my mom, Jack, AND my grandma (and all the stuff we were collecting, and our overnight bags, don't ask me how it all fit) to the last three sites, my favorite ones, as we were heading northward. Danny had asked me before I left if I was going to be nostalgic on my last day and I was like, NO WAY! I was so ready to be done. But when we got to Santa Cruz and were taking pictures of Jack in the broccoli, I thought, aw. Thinking back to that first summer in 2006, when we lived down there, I'm not sure I would've ever believed I would be bringing my son with me there before it was all over. I can't believe it's actually over. The fieldwork, at least. There's still plenty of work ahead of me before I'm really done.
Working backwards, I just gave my talk today, which is why I'm able to finally sit down and reflect on happenings over the past week. It went very well, I thought. My parents are here at the meeting with me, and have been taking care of Jack while I was working on my talk right up until I gave it (despite thinking I was done with a whole day to spare). We checked him into the on-site daycare during my session so my parents could actually see my talk (I didn't think Jack would find it interesting because not enough things to stick in his mouth were involved). And now I get to actually enjoy the rest of the meeting before Danny joins us on Thursday night to do a little southwestern family adventure over the weekend. Here in Albuquerque, Jack has already enjoyed several trips to the swimming pool, where he showed off his frog kick to all who would watch, and a visit to a pizzeria where they gave him a ball of dough to play with, which he thought was the coolest toy he's seen yet. Messy, but that's the best kind, right?
So we came here on Sunday and the day before that we were in Mill Valley at our friends' wedding--Jack's first wedding, and he was very well behaved. That photo of him in the yellow hat was taken during the ceremony. Have you seen a kid happier about people getting married? What a sweetie pie. Danny and I were meanwhile relieved he didn't require more bouncing to keep himself placated because we were a little worn out from our run. We may or may not be running the Golden Hills Marathon in October and have been training for it by going on very hilly trail runs because it is a very hilly marathon (5000 feet total elevation gain!). As far as I'm concerned, though, I've already passed a major milestone, marathon or no marathon, because all those times Danny ran the Double Dipsea I thought that was something I would never ever do. Those heady days of excessive exercise are behind me, I thought. And then, after I had Jack, I thought, why should that be? I'm not that old yet! I've still got some excessiveness in me!
We took my parents up to Mill Valley with us on Friday so we could get a jump on the day on Saturday, and stayed at the cutest little B&B overlooking said valley and the headlands behind it. Actually it wasn't a B&B so much as an in-law apartment but we had our own private space and our own little deck, on which my parents and Danny and I enjoyed a very extravagant dinner Friday night after we got Jack to sleep. We had to celebrate my busting my butt and actually getting everything done, concluding the data-collection phase of my phd.
I guess I shouldn't take too much credit for the butt-busting, since I literally couldn't have done it without my parents. You know how when you leave home and you think you're on your own now and you don't have to rely on your parents anymore? It turns out that's not really true. My mom took care of Jack so that my dad and I could move faster through the field sites, for both the putting the experiment out and the taking it back in. We stayed down in Pacific Grove and took my mom, Jack, AND my grandma (and all the stuff we were collecting, and our overnight bags, don't ask me how it all fit) to the last three sites, my favorite ones, as we were heading northward. Danny had asked me before I left if I was going to be nostalgic on my last day and I was like, NO WAY! I was so ready to be done. But when we got to Santa Cruz and were taking pictures of Jack in the broccoli, I thought, aw. Thinking back to that first summer in 2006, when we lived down there, I'm not sure I would've ever believed I would be bringing my son with me there before it was all over. I can't believe it's actually over. The fieldwork, at least. There's still plenty of work ahead of me before I'm really done.
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And we enjoyed every minute of it. We miss you Jack (and B and D too of course)!
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