(no subject)
It's been a strange and eventful couple of weeks, and worthy of one of my infrequent updates. Not last Thursday, but the Thursday before that my maternal grandmother passed away at a fine old age. I got on an Aer Lingus flight out of Boston on Friday evening and got into Dublin early Saturday morning, meeting my sister and my father at a train station later that morning, and catching the train to Cork, where my mother picked us up and took us to Schull, a village situated at the end of a harbour, and for as long as I've lived the home of my grandparents. I spent a good deal of time here when I was growing up, and I'm very familiar with the long concrete pier, with it's fishing boats and fishy smell, and the many rocky beaches where every stone is perfect for skimming.
It was strange to go back, but not unexpectedly so. All the places I knew as a child are different now, and besides, the feeling was similar to my grandfather's funeral. The town was much the same- a little smaller, and maybe a little dingier, but I do like the place. The funeral itself was good and fitting. Perhaps a little too somber, but it is a funeral. I did a reading, and bore the coffin, which are good things to do. The various events before and after the service were full of people I've never met, and will never meet again, complete with the usual slightly wearing round of handshakes and polite conversation. Spending time with my family is always a welcome thing, though, rare as it is these days with the ocean separating us. Particularly good was Jennie and I spending time with our first cousins, who we've met only a few times growing up. We got to go out for a drink together, and there was an unexpectedly strong felling of kinship, given how little we've seen of each other. Also, there is simply no comparison to the Guinness one gets in Ireland and the stuff served anywhere else. I knew that, but now I understand how great the gulf truly is.
I arrived back in town at about 11.30 Tuesday night, having gotten up at 4.30AM or so Irish time. Long day. It is tiredness I blame for my weak-willed purchase of a lovely Nintendo DS, with Meteos and Advance Wars DS. But they truly are lovely things.
Ahem. So, back to work Wednesday afternoon. After lunch on Thursday, Dr. Madden, whose lab I work in, asks me into his office for a chat. It turns out the lab didn't get the grants we were hoping for, and that the budget will no longer allow him to keep me on, and that I would have to leave at the end of February. Arse. He was very decent about the whole thing, but since I wasn't aware this was a possibility, it came as a bit of a shock. My research, which had been frustratingly static for ages, was really starting to warm up as well, but my projects will have to be put on the shelf until someone else has time. So I am once more into my favourite activity: job hunting. Woo! If I can get another job in Dartmouth my benefits and vacation time and all that will simply transfer with me, which would be ideal, but I don't fancy being out of work too long, so I'm being broad minded about the positions I'm looking for. With Jessica in a good place job-wise, moving is not really an option at the moment.
This is a rough thing to have to soak up, but it's not as bad as it could have been, by any means. We're not going to starve in the street for a while, I've picked up some employable skills, so hopefully there are options available. It's a useful time to rethink what I'm doing and where I'm going, and to cast about a bit to see what sort of opportunities there are (whistles whistely bit from 'Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life').
This weekend Jessica and I went south, to make the long-delayed trip to Long Island, and visit Jessica's grandmother there. We took the opportuntiy along the way to visit friends in the Amherst area and also in Mystic. Thanks for the excellent company and lodgings, folks. Good to catch up with you. The couple of days we spent in Long Island weren't so bad. We got in a trip to Ikea to pick up a couple of pieces of much needed furniture and some assorted useful items, picked up some books, and got to watch some of the Winter Olympics. The drives weren't as awful as expected, as we took a ferry to avoid the New York traffic going down, and went through during the fairly peaceful midday traffic going back up.
Tomorrow it's back to work for me. Should be pretty odd, having to wind down what I'm doing, and I do dislike job hunting (as opposed to all those people who really love it).
It was strange to go back, but not unexpectedly so. All the places I knew as a child are different now, and besides, the feeling was similar to my grandfather's funeral. The town was much the same- a little smaller, and maybe a little dingier, but I do like the place. The funeral itself was good and fitting. Perhaps a little too somber, but it is a funeral. I did a reading, and bore the coffin, which are good things to do. The various events before and after the service were full of people I've never met, and will never meet again, complete with the usual slightly wearing round of handshakes and polite conversation. Spending time with my family is always a welcome thing, though, rare as it is these days with the ocean separating us. Particularly good was Jennie and I spending time with our first cousins, who we've met only a few times growing up. We got to go out for a drink together, and there was an unexpectedly strong felling of kinship, given how little we've seen of each other. Also, there is simply no comparison to the Guinness one gets in Ireland and the stuff served anywhere else. I knew that, but now I understand how great the gulf truly is.
I arrived back in town at about 11.30 Tuesday night, having gotten up at 4.30AM or so Irish time. Long day. It is tiredness I blame for my weak-willed purchase of a lovely Nintendo DS, with Meteos and Advance Wars DS. But they truly are lovely things.
Ahem. So, back to work Wednesday afternoon. After lunch on Thursday, Dr. Madden, whose lab I work in, asks me into his office for a chat. It turns out the lab didn't get the grants we were hoping for, and that the budget will no longer allow him to keep me on, and that I would have to leave at the end of February. Arse. He was very decent about the whole thing, but since I wasn't aware this was a possibility, it came as a bit of a shock. My research, which had been frustratingly static for ages, was really starting to warm up as well, but my projects will have to be put on the shelf until someone else has time. So I am once more into my favourite activity: job hunting. Woo! If I can get another job in Dartmouth my benefits and vacation time and all that will simply transfer with me, which would be ideal, but I don't fancy being out of work too long, so I'm being broad minded about the positions I'm looking for. With Jessica in a good place job-wise, moving is not really an option at the moment.
This is a rough thing to have to soak up, but it's not as bad as it could have been, by any means. We're not going to starve in the street for a while, I've picked up some employable skills, so hopefully there are options available. It's a useful time to rethink what I'm doing and where I'm going, and to cast about a bit to see what sort of opportunities there are (whistles whistely bit from 'Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life').
This weekend Jessica and I went south, to make the long-delayed trip to Long Island, and visit Jessica's grandmother there. We took the opportuntiy along the way to visit friends in the Amherst area and also in Mystic. Thanks for the excellent company and lodgings, folks. Good to catch up with you. The couple of days we spent in Long Island weren't so bad. We got in a trip to Ikea to pick up a couple of pieces of much needed furniture and some assorted useful items, picked up some books, and got to watch some of the Winter Olympics. The drives weren't as awful as expected, as we took a ferry to avoid the New York traffic going down, and went through during the fairly peaceful midday traffic going back up.
Tomorrow it's back to work for me. Should be pretty odd, having to wind down what I'm doing, and I do dislike job hunting (as opposed to all those people who really love it).