Ch-ch-ch-changes

Big changes are in store for the W household yet again. Since I last posted, life has gotten a lot crazier and hectic. But now we have big decisions made and a new direction: East.

The plan all along had been for Alan to start interviewing over the fall, get a couple of job offers and figure out our next step. Unfortunately, the economy put a bit of a crimp in those plans. Not nearly as many companies came to do on-campus interviews, no one was biting, and it was looking grim. I kept telling him it would all work out; I pulled out every cliche in the book to keep his head up. I didn't want him getting too depressed about getting 25 years of education and then being ready for a real job just as the economy tanks harder than it has since the Great Depression.

At long last, Alan gets a call to get his academic life on paper and in presentation format so that he can interview with a company in New Jersey, as well as their location in Boston. Finally, movement.

Interviews in the science community are totally different than any interview you or I will ever see. It's not just a howdy-doody how-do-you do type of deal. It's two 100-hour weeks getting an hour-long presentation on your life's work together to present to your potential future employer and some of your future co-workers. It's three days of all-day interviews, plus dinners at night. My mouth gets dry just thinking about doing eight hours of interviews. I guess when you've prepared for 25 years for a job, it only makes sense that the interview would be a sort of final exam.

Regardless, Alan gets his presentation together and stresses us both out in the process. I know what a monumental task it is for him to put together these presentations, but I must say, he can memorize the crap out of some big sciencey words.

He goes on his interview, does a bang-up job, and alas! GETS JOB OFFERS. For both locations! Hooray! This is the best scenario; we're back on our plan. He was super pumped about Boston and seriously, Boston versus New Jersey? Is it even a question? We are absolutely moving to Boston. I'm ready to go, sight unseen.

But doesn't God do funny things?

In the weird, slow, science hiring process, Alan gets a second, less formal interview. Overlap of the job in Boston requires him to go back to New Jersey to speak with some of the folks there, and I plan to fly out and meet him in Boston for his schmooze-fest there. When he meets me in our room in Boston, he's singing a different tune. He's re-thinking New Jersey.

Um, no. You're not. We're moving to Boston. I wrap my mind around the possibility of not moving to Boston. NO. My brain refuses to cooperate. Even in the bitter Boston cold, IT'S A DONE DEAL.

Then we go on an area tour with a realtor.

Now, don't get me wrong. Boston is beautiful. It's everything you'd imagine Boston to be. Beautiful brick, old buildings. It's got a great vibe. But neighborhood after neighborhood, street upon street, among visions of condo living and sharing yards with five units, tandem parking spaces—or to avoid all of those things, hour commutes to work—I started feeling claustrophobic. I'm not an urban girl. I'm not just not an urban girl, I'm a KANSAS girl. I need yard. I need space. I NEED TO BREATHE.

We decide to extend our trip and drive around Boston more to see what we can see on our own and then drive down to New Jersey to see the area. (I also have it in my head that NJ is north of Massachusetts and every time we talked about it I'd say, "Let's drive up to NJ." Oh, geography.)

So after crossing more states off on my states-to-see list during the drive, we arrive in New Jersey. OH MY GOD, I'M EVEN LESS IMPRESSED WITH NEW JERSEY. Industry. Highway. Grossness.

Thankfully, the company knew what it was doing when it booked us our hotel in New Jersey. We arrive in the most adorable town of Westfield, with a cute little downtown and lots of little shops and restaurants. The realtor shows us town after town, all with accessible grocery stores (for some reason that's insanely important to me), and house after house, all with yards, all with more than two bedrooms. And all of these towns within 15 minutes of Alan's work. AND, we were able to hop on a train and in 35 minutes be in New York City.

Sounds like a done deal, right? For whatever reason, we struggled so much with the decision. For each positive, there was an almost equal and opposite negative. Neither place was screaming our name. We went round and round, made pros and cons lists, talked until we were blue in the face. We slept on it, night after night. We flipped coins. We flipped coasters. We cried. Well, I cried. We decided on New Jersey twice. Then a coin flip landed Boston. And we kept thinking. I kept waiting for one of us to have an epiphany...for one of us to have that "ah ha!" moment where we'd know. But it didn't happen until the morning before we had to decide.

After a talk with my mom and my first moment of true clarity, I wrote Alan an email that I'd made my decision. He wrote back wanting to know what it was. After all of that, I refused to tell him via email. He called awhile later. He'd made a decision too. I silently prayed that we made the same decision because I had no idea what we'd do if we hadn't. Actually, I know what I would have done: Had a mental breakdown.

Luckily, we arrived, separately and together, at the same conclusion. New Jersey made too much sense. Short commute. House. Yard. More pugs. Less chaos. All the chaos we could ever want a short train ride away.

Now that we've made the decision, we haven't looked back once. Now we just have to have all guests arrive at night and close our eyes when driving near the airport.

P.S. Northern California has to be the most beautiful place to live, period.

Absentee Blogger

Why I'm not finding time to (personal) blog: A typical day for me.

7:30 a.m. or 8:00 a.m. Roll out of bed. (Yes, this is what time I get up. Sue me. I used to get to work by 7:00 a.m. and work until 6 or later anyway, so I figure I might as well sleep in if I'm going to work late regardless.)

8:01 a.m. Hit my office.

12:00 Think about taking a lunch. But don't.

5:00 Take Marti to the dog park.

5:30 Back to work.

6:30-8:30ish Work out. Start on dinner. Eat dinner. Clean up after dinner.

8:30-12:00 Spend some time with Alan. Take Marti out. Try to fit in laundry, other chores and oh, yes, that other JOB I'm doing.

Oh, and weekends? Fuggedaboutit. They consist of maybe grocery shopping, a dinner out, catching up from things I couldn't do during the week, and most of all, Other Job. So yeah, I'm a little stressed. A lot busy. Ok, a lot stressed. But something's gotta give eventually right? I'm hoping it's the day job.

Until then, Marti has taken to wearing earplugs to block out the noise of my screams.

Dorkus Extraordinaire

Awkward situations come along and sometimes you just can't do anything about them.

I said "Hi" to my neighbor just now. She was walking to her car and was about 15 feet away from me. But my "hi" didn't come out very loud at all. It was the meekest "hi" ever.

Then she said "Hello!"

My brain rapid-fires: "Crap. Did she actually hear me say hi? Or does she think she's saying hi first?"

So I say "Hello!"

I guess it's better that she thinks I'm a friendly doofus (Hi, Hello!) than a snob who doesn't respond at all.

Best of 2008

I'm fully aware that it's no longer 2008. This means I'm a bit late with my traditional year-end post. But better late than never, right?

Biggest accomplishment: Starting The Blog. Collaborating with one of my dearest friends to create a place that thousands of people visit on the already saturated world wide web is my greatest accomplishment by far. It gives me a greater professional purpose, keeps me in shape and keeps me writing about topics outside of construction. I can't wait to see what 2009 brings for us!

Best work trip: My trip to Portland, Oregon. Although my flight around the Grand Canyon was awesome, you just can't beat two days of being at such a major event, seeing athletes and lines of shoes and apparel, and getting to meet editors for top fitness publications—for my own business.

Best celebrity interactions: I talked to Denise Austin! Seriously, how cool is that? Be checking in the coming months for more. Jenn and I also made Bob Harper blush via email. Hehe.

Best hair decision: Going darker with my hair! I think it just looks more natural and better. And it's so much cheaper.

Happiest moment: KU winning the national championship. There are truly no words to describe the moment, but I was on a natural high for more than a week.

Funniest find: My mom finding my diary from third grade. I got more laughs out of this than anything else this year.

Best big trip: Buenos Aires. Such a fun week, with lots of beef, wine and friends.

Best weekend trips: My trip to Phoenix to meet my mom and Kyle was a blast, and Vegas was hard to beat.

Best web find: Mint.com. Sign up at this website and in minutes you can see a pie chart that tells you that you're spending as much eating out as you are on rent. I mean...it lets you track your finances by signing up your bank accounts, credit cards and even student loans so you can see where your money goes. Cool for the money conscious.

New foods added to the menu: I made tofu for the first time (simple, yummy!) and tried Brussels sprouts as well. Now don't get all bent out of shape that I've gone all Crazy California. I've also been eating Chick-O-Sticks regularly.

Best natural wonder: Iguazu Falls. I didn't think anything could be worth two 20-hour bus trips. I was wrong.

Most amazing shopping moment: Not everyone can understand, but trust me, it was amazing.

Surprising kicked addiction: After discovering that it's a maybe-cause of my migraines, I've kicked the caff to the curb and gone for decaf when I have coffee at all, which is now rarely.

Marti's countdown
Funniest new nickname: I could do an entire post (or book chapter) on nicknames I have for Marti. But the one that currently makes me giggle is "Angel of Grace." She's definitely not always an angel, nor is she always full of grace.

Funniest Alan/Marti moment: We were out for a walk one dark night, and Marti started dragging me toward the middle of the street. I saw white painted X's on the street, and thinking she was checking them out, I let her lead me toward the middle of the street, saying "What is it girl?" When she wasn't actually interested in the painted lines, but kept pulling me across the street anyway, Alan goes, "Erin, she's not Nancy Drew."

Marti's worst malady: Poor little Marti came down with a whopper of an eye infection that took a shot to the eye, several weeks of antibiotics, eye drops, several trips to the puppy eye doctor and hundreds of dollars to get rid of. But she's still got both beautiful brown eyes!

Marti's biggest scare: Being jumped from behind by the neighbor cat. I was, of course, out of town, leaving Alan in charge. It should come as no surprise that this was when Samsi decided to strike.

Marti's new obsession: Mud. She's started chowing down along with the other dog park pups. It is disgusting. Foul. She gets three strikes and then we're OUT.

And there you have it. 2008 in a nutshell. Here's to a wonderful 2009!

Lemme Lemme Upgrade

While we thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas Bush of 2007, Alan and I decided to upgrade to Larger Small Christmas Tree of 2008.

I was tempted to buy a poinsettia this year or a plant similarly small because we just don't have the room for a big tree, but we were feeling particularly festive this year and decide to upgrade. We headed to the nearest Christmas tree lot and walked among the large trees, almost wishing we had a lobby or atrium and could buy one of the insanely priced 20-footers.


After a trek through the piney forest of cut trees, we settled on this cute little guy. While small in stature, he is quite balanced and filled out very nicely. While we're in a years-long hunt for an appropriate tree topper, this picture will give you an idea of this year's upgrade. Marti is for scale.

Hope you all are enjoying your large Christmas trees!

Best Weekend Ever

Well, maybe not ever, but last weekend was quite stellar. I didn't even get Friday after Thanksgiving off, but I made the best of the hand I was dealt.

Thanksgivings in California are not Thanksgivings in Kansas (slash Missouri). Alan and I would much rather be back home with family and having reunions with our oldest and best friends, but alas, it is just not possible with so far to travel and the opposite of all the money in the world. However, we've made Thanksgiving decidedly our own since we've been out here. This year, Alan's lab once again played another lab in the Turkey Bowl, aka "The most serious game of touch football ever." And by serious, I mean, bruises-on-the-arms serious. Still. They should be turning yellow any day now. And no wonder. Check out the hoss Alan had to block.

This year the game was more intense than last year, but they pulled it out in the last play to win for the second year in a row. Hurray for champions!

After the game, we spent the rest of the day "relaxing hard." This consisted of opening a bottle of wine and playing Scrabble all day while football played on TV. I relaxed a little too hard, apparently, because Alan beat me like eight games straight. And I'm supposed to be the "word" person. Whatever. A good vocab doesn't give you luck when drawing letters out of a bag. (Just kidding, Alan's very good at Scrabble.)

Because I wasn't trusted to cook dinner (and because I really didn't want to make dinner for just two in a kitchen with no dishwasher), we had reservations at a local restaurant. We'd wanted to eat there anyway, and they had a four-course meal, complete with turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie. We were a little too full when we left. It was awesome.

On Saturday Alan and I headed up to "the city" to go to Phantom of the Opera. We ate a delicious Thai meal beforehand and had fruity drinks that equaled the cost of both of our entrees and appetizer combined. But at least they came with flowers.

It was an overall fabulous weekend, with plenty of relaxation and good times and way too many drinks. I'm 28. Three days of hitting the bottle is a bit much. But it should confirm to you kids that no, I'm not pregnant.*

*Two people in one week asked, and my boss dreamed I had a baby in an airport, so I feel I should set the record straight. But congrats to my cousin Stacey who actually is pregnant!

That's what I get

Remember all of my moaning about how hot it was and how miserable it was sweating all day in the heat of the apartment?

Well, wouldn't you know it, it's coming back to bite me.

It. Is. Freezing.

We cranked up our heater a couple of weeks ago. And although it doesn't run all day, it's definitely getting cold enough that it needs to kick on a couple of times at night and in the morning for it to be comfortable. If our windows were at all decent, I think we could get away without heat for another couple of weeks, but you can literally feel the draft coming from them.

At the end of the year last year we started having trouble getting our very scary wall heater to kick on. We'd have to open the cover to the thermostat and wiggle a sensor to get it to turn on. That worked this year, until last night. No amount of wiggling is getting that puppy to give us the sweet heat.

We woke up freezing this morning, not wanting to get out of bed. My hands are currently like popsicles as I try to type. I just want a happy, comfortable medium.

Off to call the landlord.