I'm not even sure what day it is
The last four weeks have been a blur. Life comes in three-hour cycles now. Sometimes there is daylight outside. Sometimes it is dark outside. Things are much cheerier when it's light outside.
My cousin Justin died on January 30 from injuries he received in a car accident. He was riding with a drunk driver who hit an embankment. Justin wasn't wearing his seat belt and was ejected. My family is devastated, of course. I flew to Sacramento for a couple days to offer emotional support but wasn't able to stay for the "celebration of life" (they didn't have a funeral; it was more of a banquet where people told stories about Justin). I hadn't seen Justin in years, unfortunately. When I moved to Ohio I lost regular contact with most of my family. But we all used to get together on Thanksgiving and on occasional camping trips and chaos would ensue (see my entry on Justin's brother's wedding over Thanksgiving weekend). Justin was always the life of the party. He was always singing, dancing, cracking jokes, and kicking hamlin42 in the face. I will miss him. And, judging by the turnout to his celebration, a lot of other people will miss him too. But I'm glad I got to see some of the family when I was in Sacramento, including both uncles and a few cousins. One of my uncles said I look like Glenn Beck, which made me die a little bit inside but I changed my Facebook profile picture to make him happy. I despise Glenn Beck. But that's not the first time someone has noted the resemblance. A bartender at the Atlanta airport pointed it out last summer. Jerk. We also rummaged through a bunch of my grandma's old stuff and discovered that my grandpa owned a donut store in Illinois back in the 1930s!
I want to own a donut store. Maybe if the job market for Ph.Ds does not improve...
I got back to Columbus in time for three successive storms that collectively dumped a couple of feet of snow on us over a two-week period. Yesterday and today were the first days the temperature was above freezing in what feels like years, and the snow is melting down a bit. But the mailbox is still almost buried from the snow I shoveled from the driveway. My snow driving skills have improved this winter, and I can now navigate the neighborhood without putting the Pathfinder in four-wheel drive. But I still put it in 4WD occasionally, just so I can move the shifter. Makes it feel like I'm driving a clutch again.
We have some wicked icicles hanging from our rain gutters. I keep forgetting to take pictures. It's Russian Roulette every time I let the dog outside to go to the bathroom.
Oh yeah, and we have a four-week old baby (as of 5:02am today). He is doing really well. He's a happy baby and doesn't cry very much except when he's hungry or when he wants to be held, which is most of the time. Over the past couple of nights we have been practicing putting him down in his bassinet, and it's mostly working. My mom will arrive on Saturday to hang out with him for a week, and hopefully stinky_monky and I will catch up on some rest.
And on top of all of that, I am trying to write my dissertation. I have been hoping to graduate this summer, so I need to get cracking on it. I don't know how realistic that expectation is, but I don't expect to receive any more funding from OSU after September (or after June if they don't give me a teaching slot for the summer quarter), so I'll have to get a real job somehow. All of the job applications I've sent out over the past few months seem to have fallen into the job market black hole and I am not expecting much to come of them.
Hmm, this whole post feels kind of down. Let's go out on a joke. So a horse walks into a bar...
My cousin Justin died on January 30 from injuries he received in a car accident. He was riding with a drunk driver who hit an embankment. Justin wasn't wearing his seat belt and was ejected. My family is devastated, of course. I flew to Sacramento for a couple days to offer emotional support but wasn't able to stay for the "celebration of life" (they didn't have a funeral; it was more of a banquet where people told stories about Justin). I hadn't seen Justin in years, unfortunately. When I moved to Ohio I lost regular contact with most of my family. But we all used to get together on Thanksgiving and on occasional camping trips and chaos would ensue (see my entry on Justin's brother's wedding over Thanksgiving weekend). Justin was always the life of the party. He was always singing, dancing, cracking jokes, and kicking hamlin42 in the face. I will miss him. And, judging by the turnout to his celebration, a lot of other people will miss him too. But I'm glad I got to see some of the family when I was in Sacramento, including both uncles and a few cousins. One of my uncles said I look like Glenn Beck, which made me die a little bit inside but I changed my Facebook profile picture to make him happy. I despise Glenn Beck. But that's not the first time someone has noted the resemblance. A bartender at the Atlanta airport pointed it out last summer. Jerk. We also rummaged through a bunch of my grandma's old stuff and discovered that my grandpa owned a donut store in Illinois back in the 1930s!
I want to own a donut store. Maybe if the job market for Ph.Ds does not improve...
I got back to Columbus in time for three successive storms that collectively dumped a couple of feet of snow on us over a two-week period. Yesterday and today were the first days the temperature was above freezing in what feels like years, and the snow is melting down a bit. But the mailbox is still almost buried from the snow I shoveled from the driveway. My snow driving skills have improved this winter, and I can now navigate the neighborhood without putting the Pathfinder in four-wheel drive. But I still put it in 4WD occasionally, just so I can move the shifter. Makes it feel like I'm driving a clutch again.
We have some wicked icicles hanging from our rain gutters. I keep forgetting to take pictures. It's Russian Roulette every time I let the dog outside to go to the bathroom.
Oh yeah, and we have a four-week old baby (as of 5:02am today). He is doing really well. He's a happy baby and doesn't cry very much except when he's hungry or when he wants to be held, which is most of the time. Over the past couple of nights we have been practicing putting him down in his bassinet, and it's mostly working. My mom will arrive on Saturday to hang out with him for a week, and hopefully stinky_monky and I will catch up on some rest.
And on top of all of that, I am trying to write my dissertation. I have been hoping to graduate this summer, so I need to get cracking on it. I don't know how realistic that expectation is, but I don't expect to receive any more funding from OSU after September (or after June if they don't give me a teaching slot for the summer quarter), so I'll have to get a real job somehow. All of the job applications I've sent out over the past few months seem to have fallen into the job market black hole and I am not expecting much to come of them.
Hmm, this whole post feels kind of down. Let's go out on a joke. So a horse walks into a bar...