Life as a post-doc

So now I am a post-doc. It's a good life, I must say. While there is the potential for extreme solitude, I find that it forces me to be proactive about meeting people. And I have done that--there is one other post-doc, who seems quite nice, and I have met a few faculty members. I am sure I will meet more as the semester gets underway.

I am also travelling back and forth from Happy Valley to Philadelphia, which is...interesting. It might be good practice for the future, since neither Alison nor I really know where we will end up, or what kind of arrangements we will need to make in order to keep living together. And the drive is beautiful. But it certainly feels a bit schizophrenic to live in the middle of a large city and out in a rural area within the same week, every week.

Luckily, I have been fairly productive so far in my post-doc. Two of my papers (with co-authors) have been submitted in the past month, and I am in the finishing stages of a couple more. Currently, I am revising one of my chapters from my dissertation. It is in good shape, but I need to push the theoretical contribution more. This is what I end up needing for pretty much any paper I write. I am timid when it comes to stating my "theoretical contribution", having a strong inclination to state my claims narrowly. But I am trying to re-frame the introduction to make broad claims. I am in that place where I'm not sure whether I'm making it brilliant (okay, maybe just smart) or incomprehensible. It's one or the other, and I'm really not sure which.

Lastly, I recently read this article in NY Times magazine. It's fascinating, and disturbing. Basically, it reviews the history of the decisions made to euthanize several patients at a New Orleans hospital in the days after Katrina. In early press coverage of this topic, I thought I supported the doctors and nurses who made these (difficult, I'm sure) decisions. But this article was deeply disturbing, particularly as the doctors' decisions to end some patients' lives did not appear to be based on comfort, but on a patients' quality of life. Now, of course, quality of life is important when considering comatose patients. But the problem is that doctors (and lay people) seem to mentally assign "quality of life" on a sliding scale, preferencing ability over disability, even where patients have full mental function. And of course, other potentially discriminatory factors weigh in--race, sex, age, and class. But mostly it's the disability issue that bothers me (full disclosure--my mother uses a wheelchair). Just because someone loses some motor skills, or their sense of sight, hearing, etc. does not mean that their lives are worth less. In our fear of difference and our near-obsession with fitness, Americans are two quick to dismiss the disabled as sub-normal, dispensible, and pitiable (in the worst sense). As my mother occasionally calls us, the "temporarily able-bodied" seem to have a pathological fear of disability. And support for living wills, DNR orders, and even assisted suicide protection (all of which I advocate) can sometimes quickly devolve into "I would kill myself if X", where X is usually a non-life threatening disability (e.g. loss of the use of legs). Which of course makes people assume that everyone else with X does not value their own lives. Let me assure you, they do.

Of course, I also have found NY Times magazine to be unnecessarily sensationalist in the past. So I don't know how much trust I put in the article. But it's an interesting (if long) read.

End of summer (?)

It feels like the end of the summer, anyway, despite the date. I am headed to ASA this week, in San Fran, and then I start my postdoc on August 17th. So this is the beginning of the end, folks.

I don't know whether I'm looking forward to starting the postdoc or not. On the one hand, I feel crappy when I'm not working, and there's been a lot of laziness this summer. It comes and goes. Last week, I got a ton of work done. This week, I'm pulling myself through the days. I'm hoping I'll be inspired by ASA. Something's gotta get me back in the game. On the other hand, I'm nervous about my position as a postdoc--not a student, not faculty. And I'll only by at Penn State for two years, so it's a weird transitory period. I just hope it will help me do okay when the job market rolls around again next year. In the mean time, I am enjoying my break from job searching this year. It is a relief!

Lastly, Alison has been in Oslo for the past week and a half. It's been lonely here in Philly, but I am excited that she was able to see Madonna--twice! Here's her re-cap.

New adventures

In less than a month, I will be starting my postdoc at Penn State. I'm pretty excited to have an office again, and to explore a new place. I'm not thrilled by the weekly commute, but I am so, so thankful that I will be working somewhere close enough to Philadelphia that I can come home every week. And I am looking forward to improving my snowboarding skills this winter on the slopes that are only 15 minutes from campus. (!)

For now, I am trying to re-energize myself to work. It is a sometimes losing battle, although I have managed to get some work done. I am trying to finish an R&R now. The editor has asked for a number of rather large revisions, so it's a slow process. But I'm getting there, and hope to finish by the end of the week. I am also trying to finally get back to all the papers I abandoned during the last year. My co-authors have been very patient for a long time, but I know they are tired of waiting. Too bad there are several of them. I think I am a tad bit over-committed.

The good part of having more time on my hands (or at least not having any immediate deadlines) is that I have been able to run, cycle, and go to yoga on a more regular basis. I love progressing in these areas, and I think I have.

I have some pictures of meals I (or Alison and I) cooked over the past few weeks, which I hope to post soon. When I'm uninterested in work, I put my time and energy into cooking. It works out well.

Lastly, I have been avoiding all news of the health care bill. I see those NY Times articles staring up at me, and I can't bare to watch. I'm so nervous that it will fail again, and I just can't watch it happen. This country needs better health care. It is a CRIME that people can go without--that insurance companies can declare someone "uninsurable", that insurance is linked to work, that people can lose all their money because of an unanticipated illness... The list goes on. This is a topic I cannot even write about in a cogent manner, because I feel so angry about it. How can someone be against healthcare for everyone? Why is "socialized medicine" such a bogeyman? I'm cool with socialized medicine. Yes, even if it occasionally means I wait a little longer to see a PCP or some other minor inconvenience. I'll deal. I think we all will.

Time off in NYC

It seems that all I have been doing lately is taking time off. And this week I extended my "vacation" by visiting New York. It was actually a Brooklyn vacation, since we spent nearly all our time in Brooklyn, only venturing into Manhattan once, for a couple of hours. But that is what I go to New York to do--visit friends, eat yummy food, hang out in bk, and pretend I still live in the slope. It was a lot of fun, and we got to visit Jen & Andrea, who will be moving to Germany soon, as well as many other good friends.

We also ate some amazing food! Jen & Andrea brought us to Chavela's (in Prospect Heights), a fantastic and cheap Mexican restaurant. Their guacamole & mole were really good. On Wednesday, Alison took me to Tom's Diner, a Prospect Heights institution, where I had a cherry lime rickey and sweet potato pancakes (yum!) We went to Ippudo, a great ramen restaurant in the East Village, for lunch on Thursday. We followed this up by cupcakes at ChikaLicious's dessert club (a s'mores cupcake & a red velvet cupcake). Back in Philly, we continued our foodie vacation. Last night, we grabbed dinner at our favorite local restaurant--an unassuming but great Ethiopian restaurant around the corner from us. We ate the lamb special, which was fantastic. This morning we bought a french baguette from the local bakery and some fruit from Sue's, and had a tartine with fruid salad (mango, banana, and figs in a honey lime mint sauce) and a latte for breakfast.

Today we are working (posting on this blog is work, right?) this afternoon, before taking another break to celebrate the 4th. After today, I must get back to work. I have many co-authors tapping their feet at me... Not to mention an R&R that needs to get done. Oops...

Passed! Phew...

So, as you all know by now, I passed my dissertation defense. Yay! It was a roller-coaster day. An hour and a half before the defense, Alison & I found out that our car was not worth salvaging, because of the extreme amount of rust through the undercarriage of the car. We were completely overwhelmed and upset, so I went into the defense after crying through lunch. I felt like 1) if I failed, it wouldn't be the worst think that had happened that day and 2) even passing wouldn't make me feel better. Luckily, #2 was incorrect. I did feel much, much better. And my parents are helping us buy the car--we still have to pay the full amount, but our payments are going to them. While it's not the ideal situation to be in, it is better than the alternative. And now we have a cute and jaunty car that will fit in small city parking spaces. Yay.

We went to the beach last weekend, and now we are back in Philadelphia. I have a little under two months before I start my post-doc, and would like to accomplish some major revisions to several papers, including an R&R that has been sitting on my desk for four and a half months. So far, I have read half an article and completed only a fraction of even my non-work-related to do list. I am okay with this for now, but will not be happy if my lack of productivity carries into July.

Quinoa

We finally tried making quinoa this Spring, after months of talking about it. Our first attempt was a disappointment. Following the instructions on the box led to a bland, wheaty version of coucous. But I tried making it again last week, this time spicing it up. And it was excellent:

I served it with roasted vegetables, a regular favorite. They don't look great in the picture, but they were. Roasted veggies are super-easy to make. It just involves tossing vegetables with olive oil, salt, and herbs (usually rosemary & thyme) and baking them in the oven at 375. Here I included sno peas, shitake mushrooms, onion, carrots, an orange pepper, asparagus, and parsnips. I also love shallots in this dish, but the shallots at our local produce store were looking mealy. I cook the peppers & onions first, then add carrots, parsnips, and mushrooms, and add the asparagus and sno peas last.

The quinoa involved cooking 1/2 cup finely chopped onions and 1/4 cup finely chopped carrot in 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil (I know--this decreases the meal's healthiness. But it increases the taste! And in future renditions, I would halve both quantities). Once the vegetables brown, add 2 minced garlic cloves and some salt. Stir, then add quinoa. Stir briefly, then add 2 cups water. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for @15 minutes.

Voila! Excellent quinoa & roasted vegetables!

*As you can see, I have set up my new computer. Yay! I also turned in my dissertation and initiated my completely non-vegetarian status by eating a burger last night. Oh, and I cut my hair. New haircut picture below:

Number 3!

My dissertation is due tomorrow. So naturally, I am procrastinating. Here's something fun to amuse you, as it did me. It's from Google trends, and shows the relative frequency of searches (above the timeline) and news stories (below the timeline) for each of five social sciences. I've added a key below.


Dark Blue: Psychology
Red: Economics
Light Blue: Sociology
Green: Anthropology
Gold: Political Science